FG set to reduce cost of internet access – Minister

The Federal Government is making conscious efforts to reduce the cost of internet access for Nigerians and to boost access across the federation.
The Minister of Communication, Mobolaji Johnson, stated this on Wednesday in Abuja when she visited the Peoples Democratic Party National Working Committee to present the score card of her ministry.
The minister blamed the high cost of internet access in Nigeria on high demand, which she noted has exceeded supply.
Johnson, however, said that efforts were being put in place to reduce the cost.
She said: “If demand exceeds supply, it makes it very expensive and what we are trying to do is to increase the supply to match the demand.
“This will certainly bring down the price.
“This can be related to SMS, which used to cost N10 per SMS at the inception of GSM service in the country.
“But today it costs only N4.
“This is because of the increased competition among the operators.”
Meanwhile, the minister has decried the slow pace of importation of software into the country.
“Software importation into the country has really not moved much because we are just starting and it will take some time before it is developed,” Johnson said.
She, therefore, called for more participation of local companies in software importation to increase supply.
Mobolaji further said that the ministry was presently subsidising the cost of roll out of infrastructure to rural areas to make it commercially viable to prospective global network investors in rural communities.
She said that efforts were being made to get the rural population to benefit from financial services, adding that NIPOST was being used to achieve this objective.
She further said that the ministry had created a National Research Education Network to connect universities in the country to university communities across the world.
“So far, we have connected 27 universities in the country to this network, particularly those universities that have medical colleges,” the minister said.
According to Johnson, the first phase of the project is being funded by the Step-B project of the World Bank, which is expected to commit about $10 million.
The Step-B project is a Federal Government initiative with support from the World Bank for Nigerian Post-Basic Education and Research Sub-sector.
It is aimed at producing more and better qualified science and technology graduates, higher quality and more relevant research.
The minister said that contrary to speculations, the ministry was not phasing out fixed lines, explaining that demand was more on mobile telephoning and mobile line.