NCC partners Sweden on broadband penetration

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has partnered with the Swedish government for Nigeria’s ICT capacity development and broadband penetration.

On Thursday, the commission hosted Carl Grans, the Swedish ambassador to Nigeria, in a meeting on how the country can pursue ICT capacity development and broadband penetration.

Umar Danbatta, NCC’s executive vice-chairman (EVC), said the meeting followed the Swedish government’s proposal with regard to its ICT dedicated program for emerging regions and markets.

According to him, the partnership would see the Swedish Post and Telecom Authority (PTS) organise training sessions to increase Nigeria’s human resources in the ICT sector.

“We hope the Swedish embassy continues to facilitate this kind of intervention to NCC and other agencies of Nigeria’s government. We look to benefit from Sweden’s experience, being a leading broadband market,” Danbatta said.

As part of the partnership, training sessions will start with agencies in the ministry of communications and digital economy in a train-the-trainer sort of arrangement.

Thereafter, the beneficiaries among these agencies will proceed to train other Nigerians.

Grans, while speaking at the meeting, acknowledged that Nigeria is ready for the digital revolution considering the approval given to conduct 5G tests recently.

“5G technology and Internet of Things (IoT) are crucial to transforming the industry and production in a way that can’t really be seen yet, but a digital revolution is really imminent worldwide,” he said.

In October 2019, NCC said the fifth-generation network technology (5G) would undergo three months trial before actual approval and rollout in the country.

Shortly after, Nigeria was named the first African country to test-run the technology ahead of demonstrations to be carried out in four major cities including Calabar and Lagos.