NIGCOMSAT targets 84.5% internet access by 2023

Nigeria Communication Satellite Limited (NIGCOMSAT), says it is targeting 84.5 per cent population of internet access by 2023 to expand its frontier.
Mr Samson Osagie, the Executive Director, Business Development of NIGCOMSAT, said this during NIGCOMSAT limited resellers’ forum in Abuja.
According to him, Nigeria has 92.3 million internet users; this figure would grow to 187.8 million by 2023.
“Internet penetration amount to 47.1 per cent of the population in 2018 and it is set to reach 84.5 per cent 2023.
“That means we have about 52.3 per cent untapped users. At the moment we are currently working with one of our channel partners to penetrate other African countries under our coverage.
“We encourage more of these joint marketing efforts to enable us to gain more of the African market share as it pertains to connectivity,” he said.
Osagie said that NIGCOMSAT was also planning to collaborate with partners to improve the face of the health sector, build civil service capacity as well as our ‘Direct-To-Home’ broadcast services.
“NIGCOMSAT Ltd has taken a leap from where it used to be and has made tremendous progress over the last year.
“We have recently acquired the latest hub technology from NEWTEC, the DIALOGUE hub to ensure improved service reliability, all in a bid to serve customers better.
“The success of NIGCOMSAT is largely as a result of the contributions of channel partner, which is why we continue the training and retraining of installers to ensure accurate service delivery to the end user,” Osagie said.
He, however, said resellers should always give feedback to enhance service delivery in case of lapses.
The Managing Director of NIGCOMSAT, Mrs Abimbola Alale, who was represented by the Executive Director, Support Services, Malam Mohammed Abubakar, urged resellers to work hard to take Nigeria to the next level in business as envisioned by President Muhammadu Buhari.
“As operators of the communications satellite business, we have taken the hard reality as a task by refocusing our direction towards retooling our equipment for better service delivery.
“This we have done on both our ground control stations here in Abuja in Nigeria and Kashi, in People’s Republic of China.
“The Ground Stations have been adequately equipped with modern and up-to-date facility to ensure better service that would be second to none in the country,” she said.
Alale said it had become necessary to meet with resellers to re-strategise and focus for a better result, adding “it was more of enterprise connectivity, mobility networks and other areas which expand beyond the present state.
“Therefore, it is our duty that our connectivity to every industry whether big or small, local or international would be achieved within a limited time possible to propel our economic growth.
“The Broadcasting industry in the country has not fully optimised the abundance of connectivity on our ‘Direct-To-Home’ (DTH) facility.
“The Digital Switch Over (050) of the Federal Government remains a viable opportunity for us to optimise the largest Nigerian population,” she said.
Alale said the television was a veritable tool of transmitting government policies and programmes to the people.
She, however, said the communication satellite market was dominated by major international players, adding that it was time to work hard to be part of the huge market share which can propel the economy.
The Regional Sales Director, NEWTEC, Mr Adolph Kpesese said NIGCOMSAT had many satellites in space and footprints that cut across some part of Africa, saying that Nigeria was set to serve the entire Africa.
“It’s just a matter of integrating that international traffic into the satellite and then you can reach any part of Africa, Mali, Ghana,Tunisia from the North to the south.
“Nigeria is more than ready,” he said.