Right of Way: Bosun Tijani says 11 states have waived charges for telecom operators 

According to a statement from the Presidency, the Minister revealed this on Monday after President Bola Tinubu received the Digital Economy report of the participants of Senior Executive Course 46 National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Kuru.

Part of the eight-point recommendations of the report include the need for the Federal Government to encourage states to waive the Right of Way fees on deployment of telecoms infrastructure.

Reacting to the recommendation, Tijani said 11 states have done that and expressed optimism that all states in the Federation would comply with this initiative before the end of the second year of the Tinubu administration.

The report also recommended that the President issue an Executive Order mandating all MDAs to migrate to the OneGov.ng portal.

Reacting to some of the other recommendations, Tijani stated that the country is on track to become one of the first in Africa to migrate fully from IPv4 to IPv6.

Responding to the report of the participants, President Tinubu directed the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy to coordinate with the group and present their recommendations to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation and the Head of the Civil Service for streamlined implementation.

Emphasising the importance of youth empowerment through innovation and digital skills development, President Tinubu said:

“At the core of our administration is youth empowerment. We cannot relent on that, and we need everyone’s collaboration. 

“I have listened carefully to your recommendations and the thorough work you did. We will continue to engage the Institute as a resource centre and Think Tank. 

“As Nigeria’s foremost policy Think-Tank, you have highlighted the overlap of some government agencies, and we’ll look at that.”

Despite government efforts to set the fee at a standardised N145 per linear meter, disparities remain in many states, with some, like Ebonyi, charging up to 69 times more than others, like Ekiti, which has the lowest RoW cost.

GSMA, the global body for mobile operators, estimated that if charges for RoW were reduced in all states to the agreed level of N145 per metre, it would reduce the cost of national network rollout by around 15%.