India has indicated interest to provide Nigeria with $100 million credit line to develop Nigeria’s broadband to boost connectivity in Nigeria’s rural areas.
Indications to this development emerged on Thursday during the Celebration of the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) Day 2019 at the Indian High Commission in Abuja, which was attended by nearly 250 ITEC alumni, Indian community and Nigerian friends of India.
The High Commissioner of India to Nigeria, Shri Abhay Thakur in his remarks said that the assistance to Nigeria is to strengthen the bilateral relations between both countries in the spirit of the South South cooperation, adding that ITEC is a flagship capacity building programme, which has trained more than 5,000 participants every year under the banner of India- Africa Foreign cooperation.
“We have experience in the area of broadband network and reaching the masses of India. We have a whole range of IT programmes and projects particularly in the last five years and we think we can meaningfully assist Nigeria on the development of ICT and in the field of rural broadband network”, the envoy said.
He added that India has become a giant in the field of IT and also a research and development hub in the world, an experience he said his country is ready to share with Nigeria.
In telecommunication, broadband is a wide bandwidth data transmission, which transports multiple signals and traffic types, which allows for fast internet connection.
Responding, Nigeria’s Minister for Communications of Nigeria, Adebayo Shittu praised the capacity building efforts of the Indian Government through fully funded training programmes, as well as Government of India’s readiness to support Nigeria in IT-related projects such as the rural broad band connectivity network.
He lamented that India, which was at the same level with Nigeria about fifty year ago, has surpassed Nigeria in the area of industrialization and development particularly in the area of ICT but urged India to continue to give Nigeria the required assistance. He however, noted that modalities are being out in place to secure the credit line facility to Nigeria adding the country has a lot to learn from the strides that India is making.
High Commissioner of India later called on Nigeria, Benin, Cameroon and Chad to fully utilize the ITEC slots they have been given so that the same can be increased next year.
Two ITEC alumni, who have benefited from the ITEC Programme- Dorothy Esiri, Deputy Director, Centre for Management Development, Abuja and Ibrahim Umar Shelleng, Assistant Chief Technical Officer, Defence Industries Corporation of Nigeria, Kaduna, shared their experiences of the ITEC programmes they had attended in India.
They praised Government of India for the opportunity and reiterated how their experiences helped the organizations with which they are working.
Minister for Communications and the High Commissioner of India used the occasion to present the book, ‘EXAM WARRIORS’, written by Prime Minister of India, to the audience.
The event also had a cultural segment with dance performances by a dance group from the Indian Cultural Association in Abuja and a Nigerian dance group from Kano.
Innocent Odoh, Abuja
