FG, ITU plan stronger digital infrastructure, broadband penetration  

The Federal Government and the International Telecommunication Union, headquartered in Geneva, have initiated discussions aimed at coordinating regional and global initiatives to safeguard submarine cables and other critical digital infrastructure.

The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Bosun Tijani, disclosed this on X on Wednesday.

ITU is a specialised agency of the United Nations responsible for matters related to information and communication technology.

Tijani expressed his satisfaction with the meeting he had with the Deputy Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union, Tomas Lamanauskas, in Geneva.

In their discussion, they emphasized the necessity of reviewing global laws about digital infrastructure and involving relevant government and private sector stakeholders in the process.

The minister said they explored investment models to expand broadband penetration on a global scale, using Nigeria’s Broadband Alliance and Fibre Fund as potential examples for other markets worldwide.

Meanwhile, data from the Nigerian Communications Commission revealed that Nigeria has fallen short of its broadband penetration target for 2023, as outlined in the Nigerian National Broadband Plan (2020–2025).

According to the latest figures, broadband penetration declined to 43.71 per cent as of December 2023, down from 47.36 per cent recorded during the same period in 2022.

Minister Tijani wrote on X, “Following the recent cuts to submarine cables off the coast of West Africa, I spoke about my desire to initiate dialogue on building resilience in our digital infrastructure, so I was pleased to meet with the Deputy Secretary General of the International Telecommunication Union, Tomas Lamanauskas, in Geneva today to kickstart action on organising regional and global efforts for the protection of submarine cables and other digital infrastructure.

“The Deputy Secretary-General and I discussed the review of global laws with relevant government and private sector stakeholders to ensure the enhancement of global digital resilience plans.

“We also spoke about building investment models for expanding broadband penetration on a global scale, with Nigeria’s Broadband Alliance and Fibre Fund as potential case studies for other global markets.

“As an immediate action point, we will be engaging African countries and partners at a stakeholder roundtable in Abuja, to chart a path towards building resilience in our digital infrastructure, which remains a critical backbone for national development.”

Last Thursday, disruptions hit the undersea cable responsible for delivering broadband Internet connectivity to Nigeria and neighbouring nations in the West African sub-region, causing significant operational challenges for numerous banks, financial institutions, telecom companies, and related businesses.

The West African Cable System and African Coast to Europe, two key players along the critical West Coast route from Europe, were among the affected cable companies. Additionally, SAT3 and MainOne reported downtime as a result of the cable cuts.

To address the disruption, over the weekend, telecom operators, banks, and other financial institutions took measures, redirecting their traffic through alternative service providers to alleviate the impact of the outage.

By Tuesday, some operators had managed to restore services successfully, leading to a notable absence of internet disruptions after the five-day outage.