Minister of Communication Technology, Dr
Mrs Omobola Johnson has said that the country has witnessed an upsurge in
mobile money transactions, insisting that Nigeria could actualise the National
Broadband Plan to increase penetration rate from six per cent to 30 per cent by
2018, reports DigitalSENSE Business News.
The CommTech minister made this disclosure
while speaking at the Pat Utomi Center for Values and Leadership celebration of
the ICT sector, noted that 11 million transactions worth $600 million have been
recorded under the mobile money platform.
According to her, the mobile money platform
has an estimated one million subscribers under 18 mobile money operators and
67,000 registered agent.
On broadband penetration in the country,
Johnson stressed that facilitating increased investments in ICT infrastructure,
spectrum auctions, regional Infrastructure (fibre) companies (Infracos), Smart
States initiative (to reduce cost of infrastructure deployment) were some of
the priorities set by her ministry to raise 3G/LTE Wireless Broadband Coverage
to 80 per cent of Nigeria’s population; and Fixed broadband to 16 per cent of
population based on fibre by 2018.
“More people in Nigeria have a mobile phone
than have a bank account. 75 per cent of adults living in urban areas and 39
per cent of them living in rural areas have access to a pre-paid mobile phone.
18 Mobile Money operators have been registered in Nigeria and since the
commencement of operations, there are approximately 1 million subscribers, about
67,000 registered agents and Over 11 million transactions worth US$600 million
have been conducted,” she said.
Chukwudi Obi
... Making SENSE of digital revolution!
No comments:
Post a Comment