Nigeria ranks 52% in ICT growth, records 148m mobile lines – Omobola Johnson

ITRealms:

Minister of Communication Technology, Mrs. Omobola Johnson, has at the 150^th anniversary of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Abuja, said that Nigeria now ranks 52 per cent in Africa’s total internet access and also records over 148 million connected mobile lines with a teledensity of about 97 per cent, reports ITRealms.

The Commtech Minister, who was represented by the Director, e-governance, Mr. Tope Folashedemi, ITRealms gathered admitted that the country was down in United Nations (UN) e-government development ranking, adding that today, the country has moved up in the ranking with a growth rate of 11 per cent in 2013 to 52 per cent in 2014, which is 29 per cent share of Africa’s total internet access.

This according to her is a welcome development, as Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is now being deployed in both the public and private sectors for effective service delivery.

Buttressing further on the impact of the ministry over the years, she revealed that the country had a combined fixed and mobile telephone subscription of over 400,000 lines since independence in 1960, but in just 14 years after the licensing of the mobile operators, it recorded over 148 million connected lines with a teledensity of about 97 per cent.

“In the past four years, the country has witnessed changes or innovations in the way we conduct or transact business in many sectors of our economy. For example, with the deployment of the electronic (e-wallet) system, Nigerian farmers are now able to make payments for subsidized farm inputs through their mobile phones,” she stated.

She also explained that government was planning to get all its cities connected to the internet through its broadband initiative, adding that already, many state governments are keying into its national broadband plan, which is to make broadband ubiquitous across the country in no distant future.

Mrs. Johnson  stressed  that this will enable operators deploy broadband services across the country, adding that there is ongoing collaboration between government and the private sector for the expansion of fiber optic infrastructure across the country.

ITRealms further gathered that the ministry, according to Johnson, had implemented the Government Service Portal (GSP) and the Government Contact Centre (GCC) to enable citizens and other stakeholders have access to government services that are provided by the various Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) through a single window technology.

Daniel Nsolibe/GEE

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