ATCON seeks involvement of local companies in FG’s 90,000km fibre project 

The President of the Association, Mr. Tony Emoekpere, made the call during an interview with Naijaonpoint.

According to him, involving local companies in the project would help to deepen local content in the telecom industry and also serve as support for indigenous players in the industry.

“We’ve heard the government talk about the national fiber-optic project, through which they plan to deploy 90,000 kilometers.  

“We are looking forward to the actualization this year and we will want the government to ensure that they involve local companies in that project to support local content,” he said. 

The ATCON President added that allowing indigenous companies to participate in infrastructure projects would also help to lower the costs of services in the telecom industry.

“We need to start looking at ways to lower some of the costs of telecom services and the more we localize things like the manufacturing of some equipment, the better for industry,” Emoekpere stated.   

The Minister of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy, Dr. Bosun Tijani, in May last year announced the approval of a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) to deploy 90,000 kilometers of fibre optic cable across the country.

With support from the World Bank and the federal government’s 50% funding through loans, the project is expected to kick off this year.

According to the Minister, the government would be working with partners and stakeholders from the government and private sector to build the additional fibre optic coverage required to take Nigeria’s connectivity backbone to a minimum of 125,000km.