BROADBAND IMPACT ON NATIONAL DEVT IS IMMENSE, SAYS NCC

The Executive Vice-Chairman of the Nigerian Communications
Commission (NCC), Dr. Eugene Juwah, has said broadband has impacted so much on national development in the areas of entertainment, agriculture, and commerce.

Juwah who disclosed this at a technology event in Lagos recently, said Nigeria’s Nollywood film industry has been ranked third in size only behind the Hollywood and India’s Bollywood, and that the growing size of Nollywood relies mainly on broadband capacity.

The largest consumer demands for bandwidth are coming from music, movies, videos, TV shows and radio content downloads. The demand to download such content within a short timeframe requires significant bandwidth.

With the availability of broadband access, another means for entertainment businesses to distribute their content and provide access to users becomes possible, he said.

"This greatly expands the reach for entertainment businesses and broadcasters to reach their target audiences anywhere in the world. The delivery of news contents by different media houses has also expanded greatly in the recent past.

This has been made possible with the expansion of internet services and the access can greatly be expedited with increased penetration of broadband access," he further said.

In the area of agriculture, Juwah said broadband access provided agriculture businesses the means to get relevant and timely information on weather updates, since the quality of crops and other tasks depend in large part on weather. The proper timing of planting activities in line with favourable weather conditions often promotes high yield.

According to him: "Fast online access to websites that share best practices makes it possible for farmers to learn about farming management practices.

"The potential market for the produce from agric based businesses increases dramatically with access to broadband, where different content depicting the produce available in these businesses can be marketed online." 

He added that information on the availability of livestock and seed crops could be assessed online, and that farmers who use broadband to access pricing information online are likely to gain bargaining power and make more educated marketing or purchasing decisions.

Juwah also described the impact of broadband on commerce as immense, explaining that the growing levels of internet access and the continued rollout of broadband infrastructure are driving the growth of e-commerce and m-commerce.

He described broadband as the information superhighway of the 21st century, which is accelerating global commerce at a rate never imagined.

"An online presence increases the ability for businesses to be found, regardless of their physical location, and enables commerce to occur without having to physically visit the business premises.

"This enables businesses to be seen in different parts of the world without having to be physically present in the different locations," he said, adding that it saves business costs for space rental, maintenance of infrastructure, among others.

The economic impact of broadband is positive as shown from studies of the World Bank, which indicate that every 10 per cent points increase in broadband penetration leads to a 1.38 per cent growth in GDP, Juwah said.

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