Telecom
IT Stakeholders Not Pleased with 10% Broadband Penetration, 2018 Target Dims
From available data, it will take special interventions for Nigeria to achieve her 30% broadband penetration as industry stakeholders on Friday bemoaned the mere 10% achievement almost mid-term to 2018 target.
Available statistics shows that broadband has struggled to grow from 6% in 2013, to 8% in 2014 and currently stood at 10%, even though the National Broadband Plan is targeting 30% penetration (growth) by 2018.
The stakeholders who gathered at third quarterly seminar of the Nigeria Information & Communications Technology Reporters’ Association (NITRA) held in Lagos, unanimously agreed that President Muhammadu Buhari led government should make deliberate policies that will attract more foreign direct investments (FDIs) to tackle infrastructural deficit in the sector.
Speaking at the NITRA seminar, Dr. Emmanuel Ekuwem, group chairman, Teledom Group and chairman of the occasion, however, warned that quest for FDIs must be balanced to allow local investors participation in creating values in the system too.
According to him, theme for the seminar: Foreign Direct Investment: An Impetus to Achieving Ubiquitous Broadband Penetration”, is timely now that the Federal Government is concerned with deepening the economy for the improvement of the lives of the citizens.
He however, said FDIs can be regarded as beneficial when Nigerians could create “contents” to complement demands from the outside world, generate employments, and protect the intellectual properties of the people and profit from the internet economy.
“It has become common saying that Broadband is a service to the people. Before now, the slogan has been ‘NarrowBand will deliver narrow future, broadband being broad future’. The important thing is that broadband has to run on infrastructure. NCC has done a good job by trying to unbundle the service provising scope, however, there are rooms for improvement.
“Content is key too. We cannot be claiming for improved broadband penetration without considering how to create contents. Infrastructural investments can be sustained by resources generated from content. So, FDI and broadband can be as broad as Nigerian want it, but we need to balance broadband penetration with the content we are creating, so we don’t invent digital imperialism,” he said.
Engineer Lanre Ajayi, president of ATCON, said operators in the industry align their thoughts with NITRA that 10% broadband penetration is slow, but every stakeholder must not shy away from the multifaceted challenges faced operators to deploy services.
He said unless issues on right of way (RoW), multiple taxation, security, indiscriminate shut down of base stations; to name a few, are addressed, inability to couping return on investments has become worrisome to the investors.
He called for joint effort to migrating the identified challenges to move the nation telecommunications industry forward.
“The truth is that 30% broadband penetration is not too ambitious considering the fact that countries like Kenya, South Africa, Ghana, etc have achieved even more than that. We have undersea cables already at the seashores of Lagos, the question is why the delays in taking the capacities to the last mile, especially the hinterlands. Investors are not happy about the delays but are faced with puncity if challenges. These have to be addressed to push penetration,” Ajayi said.
In a presentation on the Seminar theme, Mr. Olusegun Salami, senior manager, Transmission Access Planning, Network Group at MTN Nigeria, said it’s heartwarming that the present administration is employing policies to further open up the economy in a manner that the economy will be able to attract more FDIs, expectedly, such will address inadequacies that hamper broadband penetration.
Essentially, he said, the need to leverage available spectrum to drive broadband to rural areas cannot be over emphasised.
“As we work towards increased broadband penetration, measures to adopt should take take the strategies that made it possible for 90% radio (communication) penetration in rural areas,” he suggested.
Salami recalled that the journey of broadband adoption commenced in Nigeria in 2007 with the launch of 3G as against the narrow bands, however, with issues related to infrastructure been tackled, the time for cheaper smartphones is now.
“Imagine when we have broadband everywhere but feature phones still account for 40% of the market, desktops 30% and smartphones account for mere 25%, it wouldn’t work, to say the least,” he said.
The Senior Manager, Transmission Access Planning, Network Group at MTN Nigeria, also said that LTE services will help expand broadband scope to hinterlands when Federal Government makes deliberate policies to aid operators channel their services to such terrains.
He said, “We are happy government is moving in the direction to increase its investments in the development of the nation’s infrastructure such as power, supply, roads, telecoms, etc., in order to reduce the cost of doing business thereby wooing more FDIs.
“Thus, government should encourage production activity via production incentives and/or subsidies in order to increase the economy’s GDP”.
He added that the anti-graft drives of the present administration should be complemented with efficient judicial system to boast investors’ confidence on the system.
Earlier, Mr. Emma Okonji, internet and broadband have been globally acknowledged as the foundation for the transformation of a knowledge-base economy.
“Today, broadband penetration has struggled to grow from 6 per cent in 2013, to 8 per cent in 2014 and currently stood at 10 per cent penetration, even though the National Broadband Plan is targeting 30 per cent growth in 2018. As industry watchdog, NITRA is not pleased with the growth rate in broadband penetration in the country, vis-a-vis the fast growing number of internet users in Nigeria, which currently stood at 88 million,” he said.
NITRA, he said, is aligning with stakeholders in urging the Federal Government and the NCC to consider a purposeful implementation of the National Broadband Plan, in such a way it will attract foreign direct investment and also help to boost the natonal development.
Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has said that Nigeria’s internet usage reached a record 1.24 million terabytes in November 2025.
According to the latest data from the NCC, the figure rose modestly from 1.235 million terabytes in October, reflecting steady growth in digital activity across the country.
Broadband penetration in Nigeria crossed the halfway mark in November 2025, reaching 50.58 per cent, up from 45.61 per cent in January, the telecoms regulator reported.
The figure, however, falls short of the 70 per cent coverage target outlined in the National Broadband Plan 2020–2025, which expires this month.
The country had roughly 109 million broadband subscriptions by November. Growth has been uneven, hindered by infrastructure and regulatory constraints, including frequent fibre-optic vandalism that triggers 30 to 43 network cuts daily, high right-of-way fees, and declining subscriber numbers earlier in the year.
Expansion of mobile networks, particularly 3G and 4G services, alongside limited 5G rollouts in urban centres, affordable smartphones, and competitive data plans, has driven uptake.
Investments in the National Communications Backbone and private-sector initiatives have also improved access, especially in underserved areas.
While Nigeria is gradually improving digital inclusion, achieving the original broadband plan remains challenging due to high infrastructure costs, coverage limitations, and deployment hurdles.
The NCC maintains that continued investment in mobile networks and broadband infrastructure will sustain gradual growth in the sector.
Commenting on the development, some Nigerian analysts attributed the surge to the broader mobile and broadband adoption and the growing appetite for streaming, online learning and other digital services.
According to the analysts, the figures suggest that internet connectivity is no longer a luxury but a necessity for both business and leisure, underscoring the slow but steady expansion of Nigeria’s digital economy.
Bureau of Public Service Reforms (BPSR) has named the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) among the top three Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) of the Federal Government with the Best Ranking in Website Performance for 2025.
L-R: Head Special Projects, Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC), Salamatu Andu; Executive Commissioner, Technical Services, Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC), Engr. Abaraham Oshadame; Director General Bureau of Public Service Reforms (BPSR), Head Customer Support Service, Galaxy Backbone, Rosemary Ehize; Secretary to the ES. Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board, Tahir Aminu at the BPSR award ceremony for top four MDAs in BPSR Website Performance and Ranking 2025 at the BPSR office on Tuesday, 23rd December, 2025.
This is coming barely three weeks after the telecom regulator was recognized as one of the top five best-performing Federal Government agencies for 2025 by the Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC) – a testament to the Commission’s consistency in investment in technology for ensuring efficient service delivery.
In the BPSR 2024/2025 scorecard ranking of agencies’ websites, the NCC came second in the ranking, trailing behind Galaxy Backbone Limited, which came first while the Nigeria Export Promotion Council (NEPC) clinched the third position, from a pool of 235 MDAs, whose website were evaluated.
BPSR deployed 14 evaluation criteria in include MDA’s website compliance with .gov.ng domain name, appearance and aesthetics (look and feel) of the website, content, relevance to MDAs mandate/government policy and the website’ structure.
Others include website’s responsiveness (device compatibility), security, load time, usability/ease of navigation, availability/uptime, functionality, interactivity, accessibility and capacity building.
The recognition was announced at the official release of Federal Government 2024/2025 Scorecard Ranking for MDAs’ Website held at the Federal Ministry of Finance Auditorium in Abuja on Monday (December 22, 2025) while the award presentation took place at BPSR’s Office on Tuesday (December 23, 2025).
The award, which is an important index metric of the National e-Government Masterplan for determining the Nigeria e-Government Status, was received by the Commission in recognition of its commitment to maintaining a world-class website that enhances service delivery to the citizens.
Receiving the award on behalf of the Executive Vice Chairman of the NCC, Dr. Aminu Maida, the NCC’s Executive Commissioner, Technical Services, Abraham Oshadami, appreciated the BPSR for the recognition, describing the award as “another encouragement for the Commission to be a better public service institution leveraging digital platforms such as our web presence to enhance public service delivery to our various stakeholders, thereby implementing the Federal Government’s Ease of Doing Business policy direction.”
While presenting the award to the NCC, alongside other two agencies, BPSR’s Director-General, Mr. Dasuki Arabi, commended the top three for their proactive decisions in maintaining world-class websites, which are compliant with the Federal Government’s policy direction in effective and efficient service delivery to the citizens.
According to the DG, the 2024/2025 MDA’s websites’ ranking represents a collective effort of federal public institutions in Nigeria to be transparent, accountable and open in governance, as well as a confirmation to align with global best practices in service delivery to the citizens.
Developed about six years ago, Arabi said as a result of the annual ranking, more public institutions have indicated readiness to embrace reforms, and align with the policy direction of the current administration’s Renewed Hope agenda on improve governance for effective service delivery, as introduced by His Excellency President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
“The ideals of harnessing and deploying technological tools for service delivery has become imperative following the COVID pandemic, and distortions of socio-economic system of nations, culminating in the evolution of competitiveness, cost effectiveness, and agile governance.
“As engine room of governance, it behoves on us in the public service to perform our statutory duties and we must put in place technological innovations and standardized websites to operate services as well as deliver service needs to citizens,” he said.
The Scorecard exercise, he said, is part of the BPSR reform broader function of conducting research on reform implementation efforts and presenting ‘best practice’ models to the entire Public Service, and to among others, improve access to government information, facilitate seamless financial transaction, eliminate corruption and cyber theft, as well as facilitate access to government services.
Speaking on the rigorous nature of the exercise that produced the top three winners, the DG said “in the past few weeks members of the Scorecard Jury drawn from inter-Ministerial Agencies, had worked tirelessly to mill websites of selected MDAs through a rigorous process of enduring criteria for the ranking and the outcome had also passed through a quality assurance mechanism to validate the outcome.”
Taiwo Oyedele, Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms, has dismissed reports that bank accounts not linked to a Tax Identification Number (TIN) will be frozen or automatically debited from January 1, 2026.
Taiwo Oyedele
Oyedele described the claims as false and misleading, warning Nigerians against panic over misinformation surrounding recent tax and financial reforms.
In a post on his X handle Tuesday morning, he wrote: “Don’t let anyone manipulate you. Your bank account is safe. Misinformation makes you panic and fear a reform that is designed to help you.
“When they tell you that your account will be frozen or automatically debited from January 2026, ask them for the evidence in the new law. Be wise.”
He stressed that no provision in the new tax laws authorises the freezing of bank accounts, adding that the rumours are part of widespread misrepresentation of the reforms.
The committee chairman reiterated that the reforms are intended to simplify Nigeria’s tax system and ease the burden on ordinary citizens, not to impose punitive measures on bank customers.
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