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There are now nearly 200 million active GSM subscribers in Nigeria as the country maintains its lead as Africa’s largest mobile market.
Executive Vice Chairman/CEO of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Professor Umar Garba Danbatta, this week in Abuja, revealed that :the number of active subscribers in Nigeria has continued to rise as the figures of the last eight months showed increases from 184 million in December 2019 to 199.3 Million in May 2020.”
Similarly, Internet subscriptions in the same period has grown from 126 million subscribers to 147.1 million, while broadband subscription improved from 72 million to 80.2 million, achieving a 42.02% penetration in the country.
“These may have given impetus to the possibility of holding virtual meetings and conferences on video technologies that are now providing social distancing solutions,” the telecoms regulator said at the presentation of grants to winners of digital solutions to COVID-19; a hackathon sponsored by the NCC.
“Today, we hope to unveil the three winning adaptable digital solutions from startups or digital SME’s who participated in this competition, aimed at producing homegrown solutions to the global pandemic for local, national or global adoption,” added Danbatta.
He said the “hackathon is expected to throw up innovative and adaptable solutions that will address the present and future impacts of pandemics and epidemic diseases in Nigeria focusing on five thematic areas namely health, community, productivity, economy and education.”
Broadband and RoW
Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Ali Pantami, attributed the rapid growth of broadband in the last few months to the increasing cooperation by all stakeholders, particularly state governors, to help achieve the national goal for broadband penetration.
His words: “Since I assumed office, we have been able to increase broadband penetration to 42.02% from the 31.4% that we met. We welcome the slashing of Right of Way [RoW]charges and waivers by state governors. This has been supportive of the roll-out of such critical national infrastructure and this will correspondingly lower the costs of digital services.
We hope that more governors will toe the steps of the digitally smart governors to ensure that their citizens enjoy the best services that the industry provides. Perhaps, this is yet another good opportunity to invite our state governors to take advantage of the opportunities the digital world can offer to improve the lives of the citizens in their states.”
COVID-19 digital solutions winners
While commending the winners of the COVID-19 digital solutions competition, the minister urged them to remain focus in creating solutions able to address needs in the market.
“We hope that these innovations will be bankable and marketable to the local, national and international market places. ICT innovations do not discriminate. The COVID-19 pandemic has become one in which the world is united in finding a solution. Any digital solution to addressing any aspect of the challenges posed by the pandemic is welcome,” he added.
NCC’s Director, Research and Development, Dr. Henry Nkemadu explained that was motivated to sponsor the hackathon as a way of helping young, talented Nigerians “harness the potentials of these technologies to address our societal challenges and meet our unique needs…. It is also a national aspiration to spice some of these technologies with local content as a way of improving availability of local manpower, and advancing ICT skills.
He added: “It is for this reason that the commission initiated the NCC Virtual Hackathon 2020, in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic, to challenge Nigerian startups, technology hubs and innovation digital SMEs to come up with adaptable digital solutions for addressing the present and future impacts of pandemic and epidemic diseases in Nigeria. The hackathon was designed to engage the Startups to compete in a healthy manner in such a way as to improve our innovativeness.”
The winning entries are Automated Temperature Scanner with
contact tracing capability by the Elizade University Team; the KlasConnet which offers educational institutions a web portal allowing students to work remotely either to receive lectures, register for courses or execute other tasks; and then, the SmartClinic that offers e-health solutions.
