Broadband Right African will be affordable – Engr Ndukwe

The Chairman, Openmedia Group and president of Broadband Right Africa, Engr. Ernest Ndukwe has said that the Broadband Right Africa will provide broadband to Nigeria and indeed African continent and will make it ubiquitous and affordable.

The project which was flagged off at the Openmedia Group and Atlantic Telecoms & Media Ltd International Forum on Accelerating nationwidebroadband access in Nigeria, has the theme; “Towards widespread accessibility and affordability of Broadband in Nigeria” Ndukwa said the broadband right Africa will provided an open platform for dialogue on the implementation of the nation’s Broadband plan and considered available technologies and tested concepts that can help achieve the goals of Government for faster attainment of inclusive broadband access in Nigeria.

Omobola Johnson, minister of Communication Technology and known advocate of broadband for development said that the federal government, through the National Broadband Policy (NBP) has stamped its commitment to remove bottlenecks in broadband deployment.

Johnson said that the recent Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) inked between Lagos State Government and the industry to cut the cost of Right of Way (RoW) from N5,000 to N500 was achievable through engagement and advocacy, expressing confidence that other States will follow the trend.

“The challenges that have prevented us to achieve certain targets interms of broadband affordability are real. But, we are not relenting.

We have scaled the first phase by documenting a National Broadband Policy which is even ahead of ITU’s target of 2015.

She added that the recent 2.3GHZ spectrum allocation was part of the processes to unleashing robust infrastructure to drive broadband availability and affordability; hopefully with a successful digital broadcasting migration, more spectrums shall be made available.