The Federal Government has approved the immediate deployment of 5G network across the country.
This followed a presentation by the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, during a Federal Executive Council meeting on Wednesday.
A statement issued by the Minister’s Technical Assistant on Information Technology, Dr Femi Adeluyi, revealed that the implementation of the national policy is with immediate effect.
The statement said the national policy had been developed over a period of two years, due to the need for extensive stakeholder engagement and the need to ensure adequate public awareness and sensitisation.
The government said the stakeholder engagement was thorough and multi-sectoral in nature and that it also took into account the report of the 3-month 5G trials that commenced on the 25th of November 2019.
It said the report critically reviewed and studied the health and security implications of deploying 5G in Nigeria.
According to the government, leading international organisations such as the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), an organ of the United Nations, had confirmed that the deployment of 5G networks left no adverse health effect and were safe.
“5G networks offer significant advantages over the current technologies. Some of its advantages include much lower latency, higher bandwidth, greater device density, longer battery life for nodes and greater network flexibility.
“Several countries have already commenced the deployment of 5G and are enjoying its benefits. These countries include the United States, United Kingdom, Republic of Korea, South Africa and Lesotho, to mention but a few,” the government added.
The statement said the National Frequency Management Council (NFMC), chaired by Minister Pantami, would soon release spectrum to the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) for the Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) that meet all the required conditions.
It stated that the NCC, as the regulator of the telecommunications sector, would continue engaging stakeholders with a view to developing the regulatory instruments required for the successful deployment of the technology in Nigeria.
