Opeke: Nigeria’s Interest Paramount in Achieving New Broadband Plan

The chairperson of the newly inaugurated committee for the Nigerian National Broadband Plan (2020-2025), Ms. Funke Opeke has assured the federal government that her committee will put the interest of Nigeria first in executing the mandate given the committee.

Opeke, who is the Chief Executive Officer of Main One Broadband Company, gave the assurance shortly after the inauguration of the new broadband committee in Abuja recently. She highlighted the importance of broadband plan and broadband policy implementation in today’s

TELECOM

digital era.

She said: “Broadband to the digital economy is like electricity to the industrial world. We are foot soldiers to help put together this new plan to ensure it happens. The stakeholder is not us but those young Nigerians who have future ahead of them as they would be fully planted in the global digital economy.”

She immediately urged her committee members to put Nigeria’s interest ahead of personal interest in carrying out the mandate given to the broadband committee.

Opeke thanked President Muhammadu Buhari for approving the setting up of the committee to address the issue of National Broadband Plan. She also noted that the President’s recent participation in e-Nigeria and the launching of the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy, clearly signal his commitment to the digital economy.

The federal government had in 2012, inaugurated the first committee on National Broadband Plan (2013-2018), co-chaired by the present

Chairman of MTN Board of Directors, Dr. Ernest Ndukwe and the Chairman of Zenith Bank, Mr. Jim Ovia. Although the 30 per cent broadband penetration proposed by the 2012 committee on National Broadband Plan was surpassed at the end of 2018, industry stakeholders had already proposed 70 per cent broadband penetration by 2025, but the newly inaugurated broadband committee will have to decide whether the industry-proposed 70 per cent broadband penetration