Nigerian gov't to subsidize rural telecom services: official

The Nigerian government is to subsidize the operations of telecommunications operators that extend their services to the rural communities, a senior official has said.

Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) Ernest Ndukwe said on Monday the government had resolved to set up a universal service board aimed at ensuring that telecom services were deployed to rural communities in the west African country.

"The whole essence is to ensure that telephone services are made available to under-served rural communities in the country," he said.

Ndukwe said the government had also made funds available for the establishment of computer and broadband services to the nation 's tertiary institutions.

"The program will facilitate the training of lecturers in institutions of higher learning on how to use Information Communications and Technology (ICT) facilities in teaching," he said.

The NCC chief said the project would be handled by the Abuja- based Digital Bridge Institute (DBI) but he did not put a time- frame to the commencement of the program.

According to him, about 53 higher institutions in the country had been approved to benefit from the pilot phase of the program.

Source: Xinhua