•••GIVES GO AHEAD ORDER ON NATIONAL CHILD ONLINE PROTECTION POLICY, NATIONAL DUCT ONE POLICY, NIGERIA DATA PROTECTION BILL
The Federal Executive Council, presided over by Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, on Thursday, approved over N10 billion for projects in the aviation sector.
The projects include the rehabilitation and reconstruction of the Hadejia airstrip in Jigawa State at the sum of N7,482,071,196.56 for a period of 18 months.
Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, disclosed this on Thursday and said the approval contains three items, stressing that the contract was awarded to MESSRS CCECC.
According to him, the Council also approved the construction of control tower and technical building in Enugu, and awarded it to MESSERS Mascot Associates Limited at the sun or N1,973,606,141.75.
He explained that the third contract equally approved was for the procurement of utility vehicles, and was awarded to Messers Kaura Motors at N625,500,000.
“These are the memoranda and they’ve all been approved by Council today”, he said.
The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami said, Council approved three memos, National Duct One Policy, National Child Online Protection Policy and Strategy and Nigeria Data Protection Bill.
It would be remembered that in 2021, the federal government promised to revive airstrips across the country in a bid to combat insecurity and boost commercial activities.
Sirika explained that the National Duct One Policy aim to institutionalize production of ducts during construction in Nigeria, at federal, state and even local government was also approved.
He said the policy came about after many stakeholder engagements with over 37 institutions of government.
According to him, the approval covers during road construction, bridges, rail lines, seaports, stadium and all other important buildings, adding that the provision must be made for ducts, where at least any wire or any gadget for electricity or telecommunications or any service that is required will make use of that facility and lay their cables.
“This is the global best practice today. Before construction, even during the conceptualization, design and construction, there should be provision of ducts for road construction, bridges, rail lines, seaports, and any important building.
“Today, we have been confronted with a challenge that whenever we want to provide telecommunications infrastructure, in some cities and towns in Nigeria, a lot of damage is being done, either to our roads or to our facilities.
“Why? Because during the design and construction, no provision of any duct or pipeline where the fiber optics and other telecommunication gadgets will pass. It is because of this we organized stakeholder engagement, where we brought all the stakeholders including the Ministry of Works and Housing, where we all agreed that there is a need to institutionalize the provision of ducts in design and construction.
“And there are so many benefits to be attained from that. Number one, it allows shared infrastructure. Number two, it makes maintenance and repair much easier. If that is part of the design and construction, during maintenance, you don’t need to damage any road or any important building. That provision is sufficient and you will have a chamber where you will get access to all the facilities. It is because of this, we came up with this policy and in addition to that, it will also continue to make the price of broadband cheaper.
“However, it is very cheap. In Nigeria as at August 2019, based on the official report of the Nigerian Communications Commission, one gigabyte of data, the price approximately was N1,200 but today the average price is N350. If you look at it, the reduction is even more than 60%. Because by laying fiber optics, a lot is being spent in doing that. When we try to reduce the price and the amount being spent in doing that, that is part of the cost of production.
“So it will automatically bring the cost of production lower and by implication, all of us will get even broadband access at more affordable prices than what is being obtained today.” He explained.
Speaking on the National Child Online Protection Policy and Strategy, Pantami said it’s meant to protect children from online content that could corrupt their innocence.
“As we all know, there are many benefits of going online. The world population reached 10 billion on the 15th November 2022. Today, we have around 6.3 billion people online and by implication, among this number, you will discover many children. They will not be able to differentiate between what is beneficial and what is harmful.
