By Egena Sunday Ode
The Federal Executive Council on Wednesday approved the National Policy on Fifth Generation (5G) Networks for Nigeria’s Digital Economy.
FEC gave the approval at its weekly meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa, Abuja, following a presentation by the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami.
The Minister who disclosed this at a briefing after the meeting noted that the implementation of the Policy will commence immediately.
The National Policy has been developed over a period of two years, due to the need for extensive stakeholder engagement and the need to ensure adequate public awareness and sensitization.
“ The stakeholder engagement was thorough and multi-sectoral in nature. It also took into account the report of the 3-month 5G trials that commenced on the 25th of November 2019. The report critically reviewed and studied the health and security implications of deploying 5G in Nigeria,” he said.
According to him also, leading international organisations such as the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), an organ of the United Nations, have confirmed that the deployment of 5G networks leave no adverse health effect and are safe.
Pantami further explained that 5G networks offer significant advantages over the current technologies, some of which include much lower latency, higher bandwidth, greater device density, longer battery life for nodes and greater network flexibility. Several countries have already commenced the deployment of 5G and are enjoying its benefits.
“These countries include the United States, United Kingdom, Republic of Korea, South Africa and Lesotho, to mention but a few,” he said.
The National Frequency Management Council (NFMC), chaired by Minister Pantami, will soon release spectrum to the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) for the Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) that meet all the required conditions.
The NCC, as the regulator of the telecommunications sector, will continue engaging stakeholders with a view to developing the regulatory instruments required for the successful deployment of the technology in Nigeria,” according to him.
Answering questions from journalists on the shutting down of communications network in Zamfara State and how it will affect inveators, the Minister also said:
“I want to clarify to all of us that the Constitution of Nigeria, 1999, Section 14, Subsection 2, under Article B, has expounded to us that the primary responsibility of government is the security and welfare of its citizens.
“Understanding the priority of security makes the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari (GCFR) to always make sure that our priority number one is security because this is what the Constitution says and any action to be taken, as long as it will support security institutions to achieve and deliver their responsibilities, government is willing to do
“Investors in the sector invested because of profit, but they understand the priority of our government, then when security and economic benefits are going to be attained simultaneously, then definitely we are going to pursue both of them. But if only one can be attained by compromising the other one, we agree to compromise the economy benefit of our sector, in order to support security institutions to deliver their mandate, because as long as there is no security, even the economy will not thrive.”
