Key players in the Nigerian telecom industry have tasked foreign investors at the 2016 International Telecommunication Union conference, in Thailand, to look inwards and explore the enormous investment opportunities in the country.
“There are tremendous opportunities to take up in Nigeria aided by flexible regulatory policies which foreign potential foreign investors need to look out for,” Prof. Umar Danbatta, EVC, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) said during a panelist session on “Smart Communities as the key to a Digital Nigeria.”
Another industry player who was present at the event was Funke Opeke, Chief Executive Office, MainOne Cable. She stressed the point of the NCC boss, describing the Infrastructural telecom gap in the country and the opportunities available for investment.
She highlighted as an example, the government-assisted Infrastructure Company (Infraco) project, where MainOne is the licensee for Lagos State, which aims to expand broadband penetration from the current 20 percent to over 30 percent targeted in the National Broadband Plan for 2018. According to her, licensees for five other regions of the country are currently available for bid.
Suggested Read: The Surge of Mobile Subscription in Sub Saharan Africa
Mainone boss explained the numerous potential Nigeria’s ICT industry offers to investment, underlining Nigeria 80Million internet users, the growing population of smartphone users, and the country’s over 100 percent voice penetration.
“Most regions of the country are still under-served regarding ICT deployment, and the Nigerian government is poised to diversify the economy from oil, this will allow greater ICT penetration to create jobs.
“Availability of broadband infrastructure across all regions of Nigeria and the technology adoption this will facilitate will significantly accelerate the pace of development in Nigeria, facilitate increased non-oil trade, enhance the Digital economy, improve public access to education, health and other social services and aid job creation,” Opeke said.
The ITU Telecom World is an annual conference sponsored by the ITU which features high-level CEO and Ministerial Round Tables to facilitate open dialogues between governments and business leaders.
Held in Bangkok, Thailand, the conference theme for 2016 is “Collaboration in the Digital Economy” and featured sessions on collaborative regulation, smart, sustainable cities, fostering SME innovation, inclusive gender development and digital financial services for financial inclusion.