The Federal Government has announced plans to activate at least 200 new telecommunications sites across Nigeria before December as part of efforts to provide connectivity to more than 20 million Nigerians who currently lack adequate telecom services.
Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Dr Bosun Tijani, disclosed this on Monday at the commissioning of the new headquarters of the Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC) in Abuja.
Tijani said the 200 sites form part of a broader government plan to deploy 3,700 telecommunications towers nationwide, with a particular focus on underserved and unserved communities.
“Before December, at least 200 of those sites will be active,” the minister said.
He explained that each tower would serve communities with populations ranging from 5,000 to 10,000 people, meaning the completed project could extend connectivity to more than 20 million Nigerians who are currently unconnected.
“Each of those towers will serve communities of about 5,000 to 10,000 people. These are people that are currently unconnected. So, at the end of this project, we will be reaching over 20 million Nigerians,” Tijani said.
According to the minister, the initiative followed President Bola Tinubu’s directive to expand telecommunications services to communities that remain outside the country’s digital infrastructure.
Tijani disclosed that the first tower under the programme had already been deployed in Kura Village, outside Abuja, while construction work had also started in the Niger Delta.
He further revealed that the Federal Government was investing in a 90,000-kilometre fibre optic network aimed at expanding broadband infrastructure and improving internet access nationwide.
The minister added that President Tinubu had approved the upgrade of Nigeria’s communications satellite to extend connectivity to locations that cannot be reached through fibre optic cables or telecommunications towers.
“For places where fibre cannot reach, where towers cannot reach, NIGCOMSAT will now be able to reach those locations,” Tijani said.
Tijani also said the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector now contributes about 21 per cent to Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), compared with between 16 and 18 per cent when the current administration came into office.
He said the government should aim to increase the sector’s contribution to 25 per cent, while stressing that expanding internet access must be accompanied by digital literacy, cybersecurity and data protection.
“As we bring more people online, we also have to ensure that we can protect them as well. And that is why digital literacy, cybersecurity and data protection are all critical pillars of the growth of our digital economy in Nigeria,” he said.
Speaking at the event, the National Commissioner and Chief Executive Officer of the NDPC, Vincent Olatunji, disclosed that the commission had licensed 356 Data Protection Compliance Organisations (DPCOs) and helped create more than 27,000 jobs within three years.
“Through the activities of these DPCOs and our own work, we were able to create 27,000-plus jobs within three years,” Olatunji said.
He added that the commission had generated more than N12 billion in revenue over the three-year period, while Nigeria’s data privacy and protection ecosystem had grown to a value of more than N18 billion.
Olatunji further disclosed that the NDPC’s virtual privacy academy had onboarded more than 66,000 Nigerians, while over 220 training programmes had reached 99,370 people across different sectors.
Earlier, the NDPC’s Head of People Management and Administration, Mrs Watira Fitto, described the new headquarters as an important milestone in the commission’s development.
“The new headquarters is a statement of the commission’s growing capacity and commitment to institutional stability,” she said.
Fitto said the commission had relocated four times in four years, moving from fewer than three office spaces at the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) to about eight offices in Maitama, 26 in Asokoro and now its new headquarters with about 56 office spaces in Mbora District, Abuja.
