National Infraco Project to CommenceYear End

The national programme for Infrastructure Companies (InfraCos) expected to increase broadband penetration in the country has been planned to kick off later this year.

Current broadband penetration in Nigeria is 22 per cent, up from the four per cent it was in 2012.

To achieve increased broadband penetration, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) had developed a Licencing Framework and instituted a subsidy scheme to enable Infrastructure Companies (InfraCos) to roll out fibre in all the zones of the country.

Specifically, the project, one of the key high-level interventions of the Nigeria Industrial Policy and Competiveness Advisory Council, is expected to increase broadband penetration across all geopolitical zones of the country, such that at the end of the four-year intervention, all the 774 Local Government Areas will be provided with fibre connectivity. That implies the deployment of at least one fibre Point of Access (PoA), with the capacity of 10 Gbps, in each LGA across the country. A statement quoted the Executive Secretary of the Council, Edirin Akemu, to have explained that the difficulty of using a single Infraco to achieve the desired broadband penetration because of the sheer size of the country, topographic challenges and socio-economic factors necessitated the use of the more companies.

“To address those difficulties and fast track broadband penetration, the National Communications Commission, which is executing the project, has developed a structure to licence 6 InfraCos for the geopolitical zones and an additional one for Lagos because of its peculiarities,” she explained. The licenced Infracos are Infraco Nigeria Limited (for Lagos zone); Brinks Integrated Solution Limited (North-East); Fleet Networks Nigeria Limited (North-West) and Zinox Technologies Limited (South-East).