Nigeria hits 22 per cent Broadband Penetration

Nigeria may hit its target of 30 per cent broadband penetration by year end 2018, if current indications to that effect are anything to go by. As at December 2017, the country attained a 22 per cent broadband penetration, telecommunications sector regulator, the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, has said.

The Board of the Commission, in its effort to deepen broadband penetration in the country,  recently approved two additional Infrastructure Company (Infraco) Licences, with  Zinox Technologies Limited promoted by techpreneur Leo Stan Ekeh, snapping up the license for South East while Brinks Integrated Solutions Limited got the license for North East.
With this approval, according to information from the NCC, penned by its director of public affairs, Tony Ojobo, the number of Infracos licenced now stand at four.

Over a year ago, MainOne Cable Company Limited,won the licence to provide services in Lagos while IHS got the licence to cover the North Central geopolitical zone including Abuja. The Infraco licences are based on the NCC’s Open Access Model (OAM) in line with the National Broadband Plan (NBP) of (2013 – 2018).  By provisions of the NBP, Nigeria is expected to attain 30 percent broadband penetration by 2018.

As part of the initiative to achieve this, NCC, as the driver of this process, has so far licenced a number of companies to stimulate broadband penetration.
These include Bitflux Communications Limited (Bitflux) for 2.3 GHz and MTN Nigeria for the 2.6 GHz licences. Other licences are in the pipeline in this process. As at December, 2017, Nigeria had attained 22 per cent broadband penetration.

With the licensing of four Infracos: MainOne Cable, IHS, Zinox Technology and Brinks Solutions, there are three more licencees waiting for approval to bring total number to seven.
These are for South South, North West and South West.
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