Nokia Networks is committed to Nigeria’s Broadband Plan - Najm

DigitalSENSE Business News:

The leadership of Nokia Networks in the Middle East and Africa, has declared its commitment to the achievement of Nigeria’s National Broadband Plan (NBP), reports DigitalSENSE Business News.

Revealing this in Lagos on Tuesday, the Vice President and Head of Middle East and Africa, Nokia Networks, Mr. Bernard Najm, told  DigitalSENSE Business News at a media roundtable that Nokia is ready to work with Nigeria and Nigerians to ensure the five year plan on broadband become a reality.

He noted that mobile broadband infrastructure in Nigeria needs to be strengthened to significantly improve network coverage and speed across the country including mid-size cities and rural areas.

“To help achieve National Broadband Plan’s objectives and drive the country’s socio-economic development, we are committed to providing operators here with our advanced 2G, 3G and 4G technologies, and global expertise in services to build and run the networks cost efficiently,” he said.

This, he also told DigitalSENSE Business News was focus of the industry conference with stakeholders, held earlier in the day, just as he highlight the need to deploy Nokia’s advanced 2G, 3G, 4G technologies coupled with services for operators to help the government achieve NBP.

He also said that Nokia Networks telecom conference titled ‘Connect Nigeria: Exploring ICT Potential for Growth’ was to explore the road for connected Nigeria in line with the government’s ambitious National Broadband Plan (NBP) 2013-2018. 

The plan aims to increase broadband penetration from 6 per cent in 2013 to 30 per cent by 2018, stressing that it also aims to cover 80 per cent of the population with 3G and LTE services and offer a minimum download speed of 1.5 Mbps. 

He revealed that about 150 industry experts representing Nokia Networks, operators, government, and IT companies participated in the conference.

Najm quoted a recent GSMA report on Nigeria which indicates the nation is a fast growing economy and the largest one in Africa, but has low mobile broadband penetration.

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Pix: Benard Najm of Nokia