In a rare collaboration between government agencies, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, is willing to support Nigeria’s plan to extend telecommunication bandwidth across the country with the commercialisation of some of its critical Information Communications and Technology, ICT, infrastructure.
Telecommunications is the forte of the ministry of communications where Adebayo Shittu is in charge.
According to Maikanti Baru, group managing director, NNPC, the ICT infrastructure up for commercialisation include over 960 kilometres of fiber optic cable laid between Lagos, Benin, Warri, and to Kaduna on the NNPC pipeline Right of Way, ROW, 52 remote Very Small Aperture Terminal, VSAT, stations nationwide and two network centres connecting all NNPC depots and pump stations in Nigeria.
The NNPC said such commercialisation plan would support its drive to achieve commercial viability as an integrated oil and gas company.
Baru disclosed this when he received Shittu, in his office in Abuja recently. “Our look-ahead plan is to commercialise our fibre optics cable network utilising NNPC pipeline Right of Way that cuts across the entire country. Some of the benefits of this initiative include the opportunity to provide backbone carriage to meet the national 2020 plan for broadband penetration in the country,” Baru said.
He also expressed NNPC’s readiness to collaborate with the Ministry of Communications in its goal to develop new ICT initiatives that could make life easier for Nigerians. “We are committed to supporting the ministry of communications to realise its ICT dreams which will not only ensure effective governance and service delivery in the country, but will also make life easier for Nigerians,” he pledged.
Baru also lauded Shittu for ensuring the pursuit of the national strategy and roadmap, which he added intend to increase broadband penetration from six to 30 per cent by 2020.
According to Baru, the NNPC also boasts of a data centre facility that houses all its data, information and business solutions such as the Systems Applications and Products, SAP, e-mail services, collaboration solutions and specialised applications for the oil and gas industry.
Shittu, on his part, lauded Baru for “bringing a new lease of life to the NNPC,” through reforms that were in consonance with President Muhammadu Buhari’s change agenda for the country. He also called on the corporation to support some of the ministry’s initiatives like the proposed ICT university, the reforms in Nigeria Communication Satellite, NIGCOMSAT, the Nigerian Postal Service, NIPOST, bank and transport company as well as the proposed ICT park and exhibition centre.
“With these initiatives, our intention is to continue to make the business of governance much easier for our teeming population, especially those in the rural areas,” Shittu explained.