FG, WIOCC Sign $10m Fibre-to-home Internet Connectivity Deal

The Ministry of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy and West Indian Ocean Cable Company (WIOCC) Wednesday, signed a $10 million Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to commence the first batch of fibre-to-home internet connectivity in Nigeria.

The Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Dr. Bosun Tijani, who made the disclosure at the MoU signing ceremony in Abuja, said that WIOCC was investing N10 million in fibre-to-home, offices and institutions.

According him, it would boost the nation’s digital economy, while Nigerians would have the option of better, faster and affordable internet for digital connectivity.

“We know the role of digital technology in driving productivity across all key sectors. Our intention is not really to have a situation where the cost of providing these services will continue to go up.

“Telecommunications service providers will continue to invest, but at the same time, at a rate. They have to ensure that their businesses are sustainable, not at a rate that will become challenging for our people.

“So that balance is what we have been able to figure. But we also recognise that if our goal is meaningful, there is more than one way to meaningful connectivity.

“We are encouraging investment in different parts of the value chain that gets connectivity to people and one of those areas that Nigerians have not truly benefitted from is something like fibre-to-home.

“We mostly rely on connectivity on our mobile, on the go. But there is immense opportunity to also stay connected while you are home,” he said.

On the MoU, Tijani said they had already been working on this in places like Lagos and a few other states.

He said that the government would like to work with companies like this to help them seamlessly to be able to deliver their goals across the entire country, not just in those few states.

“It is going to put Nigeria into a position where the people have got access to world class and high speed broadband internet, not just in the major cities, but in the rural and the unconnected locations.

“We also want to see how they can support more small businesses to be able to deal with other services across the country,” he said.

Speaking on the recent approval for tariff hike for telecom service providers, he said it was a very difficult decision for the government.

He said it was difficult in the sense that there was clarity on the role of connectivity in the society and development within the government.

“We appreciate that our goal of building a $1 trillion economy will need to ensure that connectivity is at the heart of that, because productivity is key for you to truly be able to build an economy that is strong,” Tijani said.

Earlier, the Group Chief Business Development Officer of WIOCC, Darren Bedford, said the company had a target of three million homes in the first phase of the project with the initial investment capital of $10 million.

Bedford said the project would have a big impact due to the fact that most of Nigeria is unconnected at the moment and majority of businesses and people in their homes have to rely on mobile internet.

“They do not have access to true high speed broadband. I think this is the first step to create this environment and to bring this to the Nigerian people.

“We have set our ambitions at a reasonable target during the course of the rollout for those three million homes, we will re-evaluate. We have done a realistic initial plan that we think is achievable.

“As we improve how we roll out and develop internet across Nigeria, that will increase over time and we will be able to connect more people.

“At the moment, we are doing an initial investment of $10 million and this will grow over time, as we raise and invest more capital into Nigeria,” he said.