Communication minister Mobolaji Johnson said during the inauguration in Abuja that the nation’s broadband plan had been widely circulated and had received positive feedback from the International Telecommunication Union and the Global System for Communications Association, among other international communication organizations.
“The terms of reference of the council include providing periodic progress report on the evaluation of the plan, facilitating the coordination and collaboration of the various stakeholders during plan implementation; ensuring that relevant agencies and institutions are actively engaged and monitoring the progress of the plan and highlighting adjustment areas if any,” Ms. Johnson said.
“The nomination to the council took all of the above objectives into consideration and we went into a very careful process to select the individuals that were drawn into the council.
“The council has both institutional and individual representations and of course government representation as well.
“Institutional representation to ensure that the requirement of the industry are taken into consideration as the plan is executed.’’
According to Johnson, the institutions include the Association of Telecommunication Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), the Nigeria Computer Society (NCS), the Nigeria Internet Group (NIG) and the Internet Exchange Point of Nigeria an all key institutions to the delivery of the broadband plan.
“Individual representations include highly knowledgeable people who are extremely credible in the ICT industry and have shown a great passion to see to the deployment of robust mobile infrastructure in the country.
“They include the two co-Chairmen of Engr. Ernest Ndukwe and Mr. Jim Ovia, Ms Funke Opeke and Mr Junaid Dikko. The international partners are represented by Google and Microsoft and the government institutions that have the direct mandate to deliver broadband to the country, which is the ministry.’’
She said other partners included the Nigerian Communication Commission, the Universal Service Provision Fund and the National Information Technology Development Agency, adding that the council would be chaired by the minister.
“The goal of the broadband plan is to have pervasive mobile broadband access to 80 per cent of the population and fix broadband access to roughly 20 per cent of the population, mostly by the year 2017.
“With this goal in mind, I have no doubt that with the credibility and the composition of the nominees to this Council and working close with the ministry, I have no doubt that we can achieve the objectives of the broadband plan and I look forward to work with you on the delivery of these objectives.”