NIGERIAN INDUSTRY LEADERS DISCUSS THE CHALLENGES OF INTERNET SERVICE AT THE 2017 BD BROADBAND SUMMIT

Business Day, in conjunction with the Federal Ministry of Communications, the Nigerian Communications Commission, MainOne and a host of private and public entities in the ICT space, came together on Friday June 2nd, 2017, to discuss the theme - Broadband As An Enabler Of Economic Growth.

A few of the notable speakers at the summit were:

• Dr. Omobola Johnson - Chair for the Alliance for Affordable Internet
• Hon. Abdur-Raheem Adebayo Shittu - Minister of Communication Technology
• Mr. Olusola Teniola - President of ATCON
• Mr. Tunde Coker - Managing Director of Rack Centre
• Mrs. Adesimbo Ukiri - Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Avon Healthcare Limited

A recurring note throughout the summit was the need for increased penetration in the market through affordable pricing and higher quality.

Each speaker had much to say regarding the day's theme, here are a few of the ideas presented:

•  Dr. Omobola Johnson emphasized the need for broadband internet to be affordable in order to grow the Nigerian economy
• Affordable broadband service is a hallmark of all developed countries, with internet being classified as a utility on par with water and electricity
•  Mr. Tunde Coker suggested building a Nigerian cloud
• Cloud computing centres are an efficient way of storing large amounts of data, but they present regulatory challenges and privacy concerns. Many countries have tackled these challenges and set up these data centres, however Nigeria is yet to follow suit, meaning valuable Nigerian data is being stored in unregulated data centres in the country or in cloud computing centres outside our borders
• Mrs. Adesimbo Ukiri noted the effect of the current state of broadband in Nigeria on HMO providers, stating that more affordable broadband will make scaling services from corporations to individuals possible 
• Since most HMO providers only serve corporations, the high number of self employed Nigerians are left with little or no access to quality healthcare facilities. It is a well known fact that a healthy population is a boost to any nation's economy, and reduces strain on resources. Broadband affordability is essential to growing the healthcare industry and in turn, growing the Nigerian economy.  

To see more from the Summit, read the article on Business Day

Source: Twitter - #BDBroadBandSummit2017