The vice president of Nigeria, Prof Yemi Osibanjo,says that efforts are being made to provide electricity meters for an additional six million household. Osibanjo unveiled this piece of information on Monday in his presentation, which he titled”The president Muhammadu Buhari Administration: Reflection on the journey so far”, at the 3rd Ministerial Performance Review Retreat for Ministers, Permanent Secretaries and top Government functionaries; which was held at the State House Banquet Hall, Abuja. Addressing the participants, Prof Yemi Osibanjo says that mass metering scheme would have a huge impact in electricity supply across the country. So far, the report has it that one million meters are distributed; however, that is yet to be a proven fact.
The National Mass Metering Program which is being financed by CBN, according to the Vice-President, has produced ten thousand jobs; contributing to the alleviation of unemployment in the nation. The vice president said that another game changing achievement of the administration was on digital economy, having contributed 18.4 per cent to GDP in the second of quarter of 2020-which is the highest ever in the history of the country and almost three times the contribution of oil and gas to GDP.
It was said that, this was achieved with the help of the Ministry of Communication and digital economy directly engaging the states to reduce the rates charged for laying fiber optic cables; many have agreed with the right of way policy and have as low as 140 naira per metre, while some state have completely removed the charges. In August 2019, the broadband coverage was 33.7 per cent and today it is 44.65 per cent: representing close to 13 million new broadband users. Likewise there were 13,823 4G base stations and now it is 36,751, representing 165.86 per cent increase – the percentage 4G coverage across the country also increased from 23 per cent to 77.52 per cent.
The vice president talked about the 4G technology to the deployment of 5G technology and it’s effectiveness vis’a’vis the 4G. He also talked about embarking on the National Information and Communications Technology Infrastructure Backbone II (NICTIB II) to connect 20 states with fibre optics that had not been in NICTIB I. According to the vice president, tremendous progress has been made with expanding the digital identity database from less than 40 million people with National Identification Numbers (NINS) in 2020 to 90,268,742 NIN records as at the end of September; he said that the betterment of the economy was hinged on this.
He buttressed that it assures democratized access to basic services, like health, education, banking and enables the inclusion of millions in the digital economy. He concluded with another key strand of Nigeria’s digital journey which is the stellar performance of our Fintech companies; the growth of which was supported by the CBN in terms of granting new categories of licences and providing clear regulatory guidelines for payment service providers. This has led to an explosion in participation with the value of digital transactions in Nigeria rising to #286 trillion in 2021.
