from OKORO CHINEDU in Lagos, Nigeria
Nigeria Bureau
LAGOS, (CAJ News) – NIGERIA plans to mobilise fellow African countries into dialogue to ascertain how the continent can safeguard key digital infrastructure.
This follows the cuts to submarine cables off the coast of West Africa in the middle of this month.
Africa’s largest economy, Nigeria, is among numerous countries impacted by the crisis.
Bosun Tijani, the Minister of Communications, Innovation and the Digital Economy, revealed he had met Tomas Lamanauskas, International Telecommunications Union (ITU), Deputy Secretary-General in the Swiss capital, Geneva, where he (Tijani) spoke about a desire to initiate dialogue on building resilience in digital infrastructure.
This week’s meeting was to kickstart action on organising regional and global efforts for the protection of submarine cables and other digital infrastructure.
“As an immediate action point, we will be engaging African countries and partners at a stakeholder roundtable in Abuja, to chart a path towards building resilience in our digital infrastructure which remains a critical backbone for national development,” Tijani said.
Dates for the engagements were not disclosed.
The minister stated he and Lamanauskas had discussed the review of global laws with relevant government and private sector stakeholders to ensure the enhancement of global digital resilience plans.
“We also spoke about building investment models for expanding broadband penetration on a global scale, with Nigeria’s Broadband Alliance and Fibre fund as potential case studies for other global markets,” Tijani said.
The Nigerian Communications Commission this week reported that operators impacted by the recent cuts had recovered around 90 percent of their peak utilisation capacities.
– CAJ News