FG’s 90,000km fibre rollout begins in October – Bosun Tijani

The Federal Government on Thursday announced that the 90,000-kilometre nationwide fibre-optic network rollout will begin in October.

The Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Bosun Tijani, disclosed this on Thursday at the National Innovation Hub Standards Framework Workshop attended by Nairametrics.

The development comes days after the FG incorporated Bridge Open Access (Bridge OA), the independent company established to deliver Nigeria’s planned 90,000-kilometre nationwide fibre-optic network under Project BRIDGE.

What they are saying

Bosun stressed that President Bola Tinubu had already approved the deepening of connectivity, which led to the government’s investment in 90,000 kilometres of fibre-optic network.

He disclosed that the rollout of the project would begin in October.

• “By the time we are done, it’s going to be either the third or second longest fibre-optic network on the African continent, somewhere between what we have in South Africa and Egypt. And this is a project that is starting implementation in October. We have raised the funding for it,” he said.

Furthermore, he added that although there is presidential approval for the installation of numerous towers in communities where there is no network coverage, the government will rely on satellites to reach some of them instead of towers.

He said certain areas where the installation of towers would be impracticable would be connected by satellite.

• “There are some places where we can’t get to at all, so we can’t put towers there. But with satellites, we can reach those locations as well,” he said, assuring that the government would cover more than 20 million people in communities where there is no access to telecommunications services.

He also stressed that if the nation wants to grow, it cannot ignore the…