The Federal Government has granted approval for two contracts valued at N24.20 billion to provide free internet access in 75 public places, including 20 airports, tertiary institutions, and markets across the country.
The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Professor Isa Ali Pantami, made the announcement to State House Correspondents after the Council meeting, presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari, at the Presidential Villa in Abuja. At the post-FEC media briefing, various ministers shared that an aggregate sum of N209.36 billion was approved for different projects.
Pantami gave details of his two approved memoranda, stating that they both aimed to offer free internet connectivity services, with the second one complementing a similar approval made the previous year.
He said: “So both memos, you will discover that they will provide broadband to these institutions at the price of approximately N24.20 billion and the project is going to be implemented by the Nigerian Communications Commission.
“The duration for the project is four months minimum and a maximum of five months and there is a budgetary provision for that. Also, the fund to sponsor the implementation has been secured by the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari GCFR.
“For universities, it’s because we have learned bitter and better lessons during the COVID-19, so we don’t want to go back to that, we want to ensure that students and staff benefit from unlimited internet. For airports, we know the difficulty when you land without any connectivity. So it will even at least make our airports more lively, if there is at least internet connectivity that is for free.
“Thirdly for the market, it’s to support innovation-driven enterprises that are being championed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where we try to give global visibility to our innovators, to our micro, small and medium enterprises, so that their market is not going to be narrowed and restricted only to our local communities”, Pantami emphasized
