The World Bank has tasked Nigeria to increase its broadband penetration to provide internet access to people in rural and remote areas.

World Bank Country Director Shubham Chaudhuri made the call while speaking on the sidelines of the maiden Digital Economy Regional Conference on Tuesday in Abuja.

The two-day conference is with the theme: “Positioning West African Digital Economy for the Future”.

Mr Chaudhuri said there was great potential in Nigeria’s digital sector, adding that there is a need for more reforms going forward.

“Nigeria’s young population has tremendous potential, but you have to ensure that there is equal access to broadband penetration.

“In places like Lagos and Abuja, there is a lot of dynamism already, but what the minister has said is getting that access out to the rural areas so that every child and every young person has that access,” he said.

The world bank director also urged states to cooperate with the federal government and private sector to invest by laying fibre optics in the areas.

“Second is digital skills, especially for the girl child to have access to them so that they can be able to contribute to areas of growth going forward.”

The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, while speaking, announced that by April this year, every state would have the federal government’s optic fibre cable coverage.

Mr Pantami further said the price of data in the country had in the last two years been reduced by 70 per cent despite the rising cost of production.

“In Nigeria’s national broadband plan, we have a target to reduce the price of 1 gigabyte from N1200 to N390, but as of today, two years before the deadline, the current price of 1 gigabyte is N350.

“The reduction of more than 70 per cent is a huge achievement because the price of every other commodity increases.

“If you complain about diesel, the ICT sector consumes more diesel than any other sector.

“We are affected by the cost of diesel, we are being affected by forex, but yet the price is coming down; why? Because we always work harder to ensure that we reduce the cost of production.”

(NAN)