Mr. Bosun Tijani who is the Minister of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy has asserted that the construction of fiber optic cables across Nigeria will cost 2 billion dollars.
Tijani made this revelation in an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today which was monitored by Africa Today News, New York on Tuesday.
He said, ‘I understand, as a minister, that if we prioritize fiber optic cables in this country, the quality of service, whether it’s through your normal mobile telephony or the internet service you use at home, is going to go off the roof, and that’s the commitment I’m also making.
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‘In the next four years, we are going to do everything to increase the kilometers of fiber optic cables in Nigeria. We are about 35, 000 kilometers away, and we need to go to 95,000 kilometers, almost half way there.
‘It’s going to cost roughly 1.5 to 2 billion dollars to wire the whole of Nigeria to reach that 95, 000.
‘We hope we can accelerate in the next 6 to 12 months, secure that funding that private companies can tap into—it’s not government money—and hopefully work with serious companies that can lay fiber over the next two to three years.
‘We’re hoping that before the first four years of this administration, a significant portion of that 95, 000 kilometers will be covered,’ he said.
In another report, the Federal Government of Nigeria has disclosed that it only funded 422 persons to the ongoing COP28 Climate Summit in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
This was confirmed by the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris.
The minister made this known in a statement on Monday following a controversy trailing 1,411 Nigerian registered delegates at the summit.
President Bola Tinubu had on November 29, 2023, departed Abuja for Dubai for the summit expected to end on December 12, 2023.