“Working with partners and stakeholders from the government and private sector, this SPV will build the additional fibre optic coverage required to take Nigeria’s connectivity backbone to a minimum of 125,000km, from the current coverage of about 35,000km. Upon delivery, this will become Africa’s 3rd longest terrestrial fibre optic backbone, after Egypt and South Africa,” he said in an announcement on Tuesday.
With the move, Nigeria will be seeking to increase internet penetration to over 70 per cent, reduce the cost of access to the internet by over 60 per cent and drive inclusion of at least 50 per cent of the 33 million Nigerians currently excluded from access to the internet.
On the economic front, the country will be targeting delivering up to 1.5 per cent of GDP growth per capita raising GDP from $472.6 billion (2022) to $502 billion over the next four years.
“This extensive coverage will enable us to optimise the unique benefit of having 8 submarine cables already landed in Nigeria and therefore drive uptake of the data capacity that the cables offer, beyond the current usage level of 10 per cent.
“Building on our existing work with the Broadband Alliance, this increased connectivity will help plug the current non-consumption gap by connecting over 200,000 educational, healthcare and social institutions across Nigeria, ensuring that a larger section of our society can be included in the benefits of internet connectivity,” he added.