John Anyim
President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday said the Federal Government will take full advantage of the opportunities that Fifth Generation (5G) provides to tackle insecurity, improve the economy and the general well-being of the nation.
The president directed all the security institutions to immediately leverage Fifth Generation (5G) technology, when deployed, to enhance security in the country.
The President who launched the National Policy on 5G for Nigeria’s Digital Economy, said the Federal Government will take full advantage of the opportunities provided by the 5G to address challenges in the economy, security and well-being of the nation.
President Buhari, while allaying fears over health safety of 5G, affirmed that such issues have been ”effectively addressed” in developing a Policy that suits the country.
As at August 2021, the sector had remitted over N1 trillion to the Federation Account as against the 200 billion annually remitted.
It will be recalled that at spectrum auction for the 5G, each spectrum was assigned to the winners at the price of over N250 billion per spectrum, as against the N75b reserved price per spectrum
On the other benefits of 5G technologies, the President noted it can support virtually every sector of the economy, including enhanced connectivity, improved healthcare, support for education while fostering smart cities, and boosting agriculture, among other advantages.
”It will also support security institutions with real-time communication.
”5G technology is significantly faster than earlier digital technologies and it provides near real-time communication. This can play a key role in boosting our efforts towards enhancing security across the nation.
”It will enable our security institutions to effectively deploy robotics, autonomous vehicles, augmented and virtual reality to address any security challenges that we face,” he said at the launch of the policy, which was presented and approved at the Federal Executive Council meeting on the 8th of September 2021, following a robust debate.