The federal government says it is targeting 70 per cent of broadband penetration and not more than N390 per gigabyte by 2025.

Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, said this at an event by the Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON) in Abuja on Monday.

Tagged “National Strategic Mobilisation for the Actualisation of National Broadband Target of 70 per cent Conference and Exhibition”, the programme had as its theme, “Realising the New Set Target of 70 per cent of Broadband Penetration”.

Mr Pantami, who was represented by the Director of IT Infrastructure Solution Department, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Usman Gambo Abdullahi, said broadband was the backbone of a digital economy.

The minister said, “The plan is carefully designed to deliver data download speeds across Nigeria. A minimum of 25Mbps in urban areas, and 10Mbps in rural areas.

“With effective coverage available to at least 90 per cent of the population by 2025 at a price not more than N390 per 1GB of data as well as penetration rate of 70 per cent by 2025.”

He recalled that as at July 2021, the broadband penetration was 39.79 per cent, adding that the current evaluation of the broadband plan achievements so far revealed that as of the first quarter of 2022, broadband penetration stood at 42.27 per cent.

The minister listed some of the challenges of broadband to include multiple taxation and regulation, non-conformity with agreed Right-of-Way charges, difficulty in obtaining approvals and permits, and burdensome taxes and levies.

He, however, said that the government was confident that the increase would continue and surpass the set mid-term target of 50 per cent penetration by 2023.

“Our confidence in this is based on the strength of positive indices in 3G and 4G population coverage, which are presently at 83.65 per cent and 62.55 per cent respectively,” he said.

(NAN)