The Federal Government has increased the number of communities with access to broadband internet service.
It stated that 16m new people had gained internet access as of November 2022.
It also noted that it had reduced localities and clusters of communities with low internet or non-existent internet access across the country.
This was disclosed by the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Prof Isa Pantanmi, in a scorecard of the ministry under the seven and half years regime of the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.).
The scorecard was made available to Sunday PUNCH on Friday.
In the report titled, ‘President Muhummadu Buhari’s Strides in the Digital Economy Sector’, it stated that based on a study carried out by the ministry, the number of “unserved” and “underserved” clusters had reduced by 27.91m.
The scorecard was based on the report of consultants, KPMG, and Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office, in collaboration with the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation.
It stated, “The estimated number of people living in the unserved and underserved areas declined from 33.7 million in 2015 to 31.16 million in 2019, while the number of clusters dropped from 2017 to 114 during the period.
“Based on the outcome of the new study in 2022, the number of clusters has further dropped from 114 to 97 clusters with an estimated population of 27.91m.”
Speaking further on broadband access, Pantanmi said it had surpassed its plan to reduce the cost of data to N390 per data by 2025 as the price of 1GB data had reduced from N1,200 in 2019 to N350 in 2023.
Source: The Punch
