Facebook, NCC sign deal to expand connectivity

Facebook is soliciting a partnership with the Nigeria Communication Commission (NCC), to enhance digital culture, to strengthen connectivity and improve businesses.

Underscoring the centrality of infrastructure to the flourishing of digital culture, Ibrahima Ba, Investment Lead at Facebook Office in the United States, said robust infrastructure is the bedrock of the massive connectivity that signposts Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram.

“Without adequate and right type of infrastructure, there can be no robust connectivity,” he said.

Mr Ba recalled that Facebook had successfully undertaken two connectivity projects in Edo and Ogun involving a total of 800 kilometers of fibre connecting institutions and operator towers.

“Considering the connectivity gap that still exists in the country, there is a great need for more and even further expansion of infrastructure because increased penetration of services will require further deployment of infrastructure which will encourage investment and promote digital culture,” he said.

Mr Ba added that Nigeria is very important to Facebook for many reasons, but particularly because it is Africa’s most populous country.

Umar Danbatta, executive vice chairman and chief executive (EVC/CE) of NCC, commended the group for the model it has adopted in participating in the Nigerian market by partnering with licensees of the Commission.

Danbatta, who spoke through Edoyemi Ogoh, deputy director technical standards and network Integrity at NCC, assured the team of NCC’s unending commitment to infrastructure expansion to enhance better connectivity.

He affirmed that NCC is aware of how central infrastructure is to the expansion of telecom services, and said that the realisation explained NCC’s adoption of the Open Access Model (OAM) and the licensing of infrastructure companies (Infracos) to cascade fibre to the hinterland of Nigeria.