India to assist Nigeria with $100m credit line to develop broadband
INNOCENT ODOH, Abuja
India has indicated interest to provide Nigeria with $100 million credit line to develop Nigeria’s broadband to boost connectivity in rural areas.
Indications to this development emerged last Thursday during the Celebration of the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) Day 2019 at the Indian High Commission in Abuja, which was attended by nearly 250 ITEC alumni, Indian community and Nigerian friends of India.
Shri Abhay Thakur, India High Commissioner to Nigeria, said the assistance to Nigeria was to strengthen the bilateral relationsbetweenbothcountries in the spirit of the South-south cooperation, adding that ITEC was a flagship capacity building programme that had trained more than 5,000 participants every year under the banner of India-africaforeigncooperation.
“We have experience in the area of broadband network and reaching the masses of India. We have a whole range of IT programmes and projects, particularly in the last five years, and we think we can meaningfully assist Nigeria on the development of ICT and in the field of rural broadband network,” the envoy said.
He said India had become a giant in the field of IT and also a research and development hub in the world, an experience he said his country was ready to share with Nigeria.
In telecommunication, broadband is a wide bandwidth data transmission, which transports multiple signals and traffic types, which allows for fast internet connection.
Responding, Adebayo Shittu, Nigeria’s minister for communications, praised the capacity building efforts of the Indian Government through fully funded training programmes as well as India’s readiness to support Nigeria in It-related projects such as the rural broadband connectivity network.
He lamented that India, which was at the same level with Nigeria about 50 year ago, had surpassed Nigeria in the area of industrialisation and development, particularly in the area of ICT, but urged India to continue to give Nigeria the required assistance.
He, however, noted that modalities were being out in place to secure the credit line facility to Nigeria, adding the country had a lot to learn from the strides that India was making.
High Commissioner of India later called on Nigeria, Benin, Cameroon and Chad to fully utilize the ITEC slots they have been given so that the same can be increased next year.