The United States through the United States Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) is partnering Backbone Connectivity Network Limited of Nigeria to bridge broadband access gaps in the country, especially in the North-west zone of the country.
The partnership is expected to touch on how cost-effective technology and infrastructure that could be deployed to accelerate and surpass the 30 per cent broadband target as contained in the National Broadband Plan (NBP) of the federal government.
The announcement was made at a dinner reception held in Lagos in honour of the participants of the November 2017 USTDA Reverse Trade Mission, by US Consul General, John Bray and visiting USTDA Country Manager for Nigeria, Ms. Shannon Roe.
USTDA announced the award of a USTDA-funded grant to Backbone Connectivity Network Nigeria Limited for the development of a feasibility study and business plan to support the deployment of a broadband fiber network across the North West region of Nigeria including the building of a Tier III data center in Kaduna State.
CEO of BCN, Mr. Ibrahim Dikko, expressed gratitude to the USTDA team for the grant support, he stated that the grant was timely as it coincided with BCN’s corporate and broadband infrastructure network expansion and deepening of its product and services portfolio.
The feasibility study and business plan being funded by USTDA would cover the assessment of the BCN-led consortium’s plan to build about 10,000 km of fiber linking about 500 Points of Access across all local government areas in the seven North Western States integrated with the Tier III Data and Co-location Centre deployment plan for Kaduna.
This is in furtherance of the National Broadband Plan to increase broadband access in Nigeria from its present 22 per cent to over 30 per cent by end 2018.
Backbone Connectivity Network Ltd (BCN), is a leading unified data communication service provider that operates a metropolitan broadband network in Abuja and has deployed over 1,000 km of fiber in North Central and North Eastern Nigeria.
Dikko further reiterated BCN’s commitment to its partnership with USTDA in promoting increased broadband network footprint and Internet penetration in Nigeria for improved socio-economic development across Northern.
BCN has a National Long-Distance Operator License, a National Metropolitan Operator License and an Internet Service Provider License, allowing it to provide client centric data management solutions.
