The minister of communication and digital economy, Mr. Isa Pantami said on Thursday that the five generation (5G) network will be deployed in Nigeria in January 2022.
Speaking at a town hall meeting organised by the ministry of information and culture in Maiduguri, Borno State, the minister said the network will aid surveillance against vandalism of public assets.
Pantami, who was represented by the commissioner for technical services at the Nigeria Communication Commission (NCC), Mr. Ubale Maska, said the 5G network was recently approved by the federal executive council for increased connectivity.
He said while the technology would boost surveillance against criminal elements vandalising public infrastructure across the country, other measures should be put in place to arrest them and bring them to book.
The minister disclosed that there were over 50,000 telecommunication sites across the country, which made it difficult to man manually except through the deployment of modern technology.
He also disclosed that there were about 16,000 reported outages by mobile network operators – MTN, Globacom, Airtel and 9Mobile – from January 2021 to July 2021.
Pantami said the outages were caused by fibre cuts, access denial and theft leading to service disruption in the affected areas
He noted that the protection of critical infrastructural facility is key to the nation’s security, economic vitality, public health and safety.
He decried the situation where telecoms installations that were destroyed in attacks by terrorists, had not been replaced as a result of the lingering insecurity and tension in parts of the northeast.
As a way forward, the minister recommended continuous stakeholders buying-in and synergy among security forces.
He also urged the national assembly to expedite the passage of the Critical Infrastructure Protection Bill for onward submission to the president for assent.
The meeting was put together to address vandalism of power and telecommunications infrastructure.
It was attended by the minister of information and culture, Mr. Lai Mohammed who led the panelists.
Also in attendance were the governor of Borno State, Prof Babagana Zulum and his deputy, Mr. Usman Kadafur and some other stakeholders.
