The value of Nigeria’s daily online transactions has risen to N1.8 billion; following a drastic increase of internet connectivity and growth of its users every day.
Speaking on the development, Managing Director of Backbone Connectivity Network Nigeria, Mr. Ibrahim Dikko, at a reception held to welcome the Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission, Prof Umar Danbatta, by the Association of Telecom Companies of Nigeria in Lagos recently, said the increase in online transactions had been facilitated by the growth in broadband network, which had been further enhanced by NCC’s adoption of open access model.
Dikko, who was one of the speakers at the event, also expressed worries that much is needed in the area of broadband deployment, calling on the NCC to ensure that licensed infrastructure companies, dubbed infracos, whose main duty is to lay metropolitan fiber cables in areas assigned to them, make broadband available for online and e-commerce services.
According to him, this is in line with NCC’s open access model of broadband deployment, especially to underserved areas where connectivity is slow in the country.
Commenting on the activities of the two licensed infracos, MainOne Cable Company and IHS Holdings, Danbatta, said he was not impressed with their performances, as they have not done anything to reflect why they were licensed.
Expressing his disappointment, Danbatta affirmed that even one year after the licenses was issued, both companies have not laid any fiber on the ground to demonstrate their seriousness, adding that this shows they are not prepared for it, as progress ought to have been made by now.
This means that the move by the telecom regulator in ensuring metropolitan fiber optic deployment to drive broadband, which forms major part of its five-year plan from 2013 to 2018, and also top its 8-point agenda under Danbatta may not be realised soon.
