120,000Km Fibre Optic Cables to be laid in Four Years – NCC Plans

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has disclosed plans to lay 120,00 kilometers of fibre optic cables across the country in the next four years.

The Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta made this disclosure at this weekend during an interactive session with senior media chiefs from mainstream and online media community hosted by the commission.

The event, held at the NCC’s Communications and Digital Economy Complex, Mbora, Abuja, was attended by the top notch of the fourth estate of the realm both physically and virtually, as well as the senior management of the Commission, including the Executive Commissioner Stakeholder Management, Adeleke Adewolu.

Danbatta who said this noted that prior to his assumption of office, there were 47,000 kilometers of fibre optic cables laid across the country.

However, five years after, as a result of regulatory focus, there are now 54,725 kilometers of fibre cables laid across the country through the efforts of some private companies in the sector.

Addressing the forum, Danbatta said in line with the Federal Government’s target, the commission is targeting additional 120,000 kilometer of fibre are being planned over the next four years.

Recall, Business Remarks reported that the Federal Government has waived Right of Ways (RoW) on Federal Highways to Promote Digital Economy.

The waiver, which would subsist till December 2022, he added, was also to facilitate ease of doing business in Nigeria.

This is in addition to the reports on several State Government reductions and total removal of RoW in their respective Nigerian states.

Speaking further, the EVC said in this regard NCC is working on last-mile connectivity to different parts of the country through leveraging the 40 terabyte capacity of five submarine cables on the coastal shores of Nigeria,” he said.

Danbatta also pointed out that the licensing of six Infrastructure Companies (InfraCos) to deploy fibre infrastructure across the six-geo political zones will also help to galvanise increased connectivity.

Danbatta, however, noted that “we cannot have pervasive broadband with only 37,000 4G-enabled Base Transceiver Stations (BTS) of the total 50,000 BTS currently in the country. We need more next-generation technologies as we work through addressing infrastructure deficit occasioned by the spike in data usage in the country.”