Pantami: 5G will help address Nigeria’s security challenges

Isa Pantami, minister of communications and digital economy, says the deployment of 5G network will help to address Nigeria’s security challenges.

The minister said this on Monday at the auction of the 3.5 GHz spectrum organised by the Nigerian Communications Commission in Abuja.

Speaking at the auction, Pantami reiterated that 5G has no adverse effect, as confirmed by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and International Telecommunication Union.

He added that 5G would solve some of the security challenges in the country since the technology provides real-time services and platforms.

“We feel that if 5G is utilized effectively by our security institutions, it will go a long way in addressing many security challenges we have in Nigeria. Firstly, there are many benefits of 5G over 4G, 3G, and even 2G, particularly the mutual authentification of its network and because its network is encrypted,” he said.

“So this will provide an avenue for our security institutions to leverage on the technology and deploy many emerging technologies in the country to handle security challenges we are being confronted with.

“Today, if you want to address things like insecurity, you’ll need things like robotics, artificial intelligence, data analytics. All these emerging technologies cannot be deployed effectively without 5G because 5G gives you real time communication. With this real time communication, all these gadgets can be deployed and utilised effectively to handle security challenges and this is the approach globally. 

“At the top of our agenda to support 5G deployment is to support our security institutions to provide a network so that they will leverage on and address the security challenges head-on.”

On December 2, the NCC had announced the three telcos as approved bidders of the license spots for 3.5 gigahertz (GHz) spectrum auction for the deployment of the 5G network.

MTN Nigeria, Mafab Communications Ltd, and Airtel Networks Ltd are qualified bidders. Two of them will emerge as winners after the auction process.