PRESENTATION TO VISITING STUDENTS:
NDA KADUNA
BRIDGING DIGITAL DIVIDE IN NIGERIA
By
Abdullahi Maikano
Secretary, Universal Service Provision Secretariat
April 2013
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CONTENT
 INTRODUCTION
 VISION/MISSION OF THE USPF
 GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE
 GOALS AND STRATEGY
 PROGRAMMES AND PROJECTS
 CONCLUSIONS
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INTRODUCTION
 The Nigerian Communications Act (NCA) No 19 of
2003, Part IV detail the Universal Service Provision in
Nigeria.
 Section 115 establishes the USP Board with the
mandate to supervise and provide broad policy
directions for the management of the USP Fund.
 Section 118 establishes the USP Secretariat and states
that it shall reside in the Commission (NCC) and shall
be responsible for the day-to-day administration of the
Universal Service Provision.
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INTRODUCTION
 The Universal Access and Universal Service Regulation
2007 Section (2) states that “The ultimate objectives of the
system of universal access and universal service provision
described in sub-paragraph (1) of the regulation are to:
 promote greater social equity and inclusion for the people of
Nigeria; and
 Contribute to national economic, social and cultural
development of Nigeria
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INTRODUCTION
 The Universal Service Provision Fund (“USPF”) was established by
the Federal Government of Nigeria to facilitate the achievement of
national policy goals for universal service and universal access to
information and communication technologies (ICTs) in rural, unserved and under-served areas in Nigeria.
 The USP Secretariat carries out the general statutory mandate of
the NCC on Universal Access and Universal Service by:
‘… promoting the widespread availability and usage of network
services and application services throughout Nigeria by
encouraging the installation of network facilities and the provision
of network services and applications services to institutions and in
unserved, underserved areas or for underserved groups within the
community’
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INTRODUCTION
 The core focus of the USPF mandate are:
 Widespread availability of infrastructure and services
Usage of network and application services

 The USPF was established to bridge the Digital divide
in Nigeria through its activities.


Reducing economic barriers through widespread availability
Eliminating Knowledge barriers through usage of networks
and application services
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VISION/MISSION OF THE USPF
 Vision
Equitable ICT Access for All
 Mission
To facilitate the achievement of universal access to ICT and
universal service, through market-based investment, which
stimulate development in rural, un-served and
underserved communities.
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GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE
 World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS)
 Digital Revolution – Advances in ICT resulted in fundamental
changes in the way we communicate, work, earn a livelihood,
and socialize/behave
 Digital Divide – The Digital Revolution created a divide
between and within countries i.e. those that have access to
ICT and have adopted ICT in improving lives and those that
have no access to ICT
 WSIS developed a Plan of Action with Ten Targets:
1. to connect villages with ICTs and establish community
access points;
2. to connect universities, colleges, secondary schools and
primary schools with ICTs;
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GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE
3. to connect scientific and research centres with ICTs;
4. to connect public libraries, cultural centres, museums, post
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
offices and archives with ICTs;
to connect health centres and hospitals with ICTs;
to connect all local and central government departments and
establish websites and email addresses;
to adapt all primary and secondary school curricula to meet
the challenges of the Information Society, taking into
account national circumstances;
to encourage the development of content and to put in place
technical conditions in order to facilitate the presence and
use of all world languages on the Internet;
to ensure that more than half the world’s inhabitants have
access to ICTs within their reach.
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Current Perspectives –SMP 2013-2017
Programs:
•Backbone Connectivity
•Local Access Network and Facilities
•Accelerated Mobile Phone Expansion
•Health Informatics
•E-Accessibility
•Local Content Development
Programs:
•Research Studies and Surveys
•Subsidy and Incentive Design
•Consultation and Awareness
Creation
Programs:
•Review/Development of
Organisational Capacity
•Review/Development of Policies and
Procedures Manuals
•Review of Organisational Plans
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GOALS AND STRATEGY
 The strategies: Grants and Subsidies through Public-Private-
Peoples Partnerships (PPPP) are designed to achieve:
 AVAILABILITY: ICT services should be accessed by consumers every
time (24×7), even if it is public access.
 AFFORDABILITY: Prices of ICT services (within a universal service
programme) should be such that a greater part of the population can
pay
 ACCESSIBILITY: The geographic distribution of ICT services points of
presence should be as close as possible to the consumers, including persons
living with disabilities.
 SUSTAINABILITY: ICT services/applications
programmes shall be managed/maintained in
ensures consumers benefit from the programme
forever
 AWARENESS/EMPOWERMENT: UA/US
within the UA/US
a mechanism that
over a long period -
programmes are
designed to promote awareness of the importance and uses of
ICT. The programmes should also help improve the socioeconomic activities of the rural communities.
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PROGRAMMES AND PROJECTS
The USFP commenced operations in 2006. Over the past 5 years the following
programmes and projects were undertaken:
 School Access Project (SAP) - This project ensure the USPF promotes e-
learning in secondary schools by facilitating technology-enabled learning.
Students are able to collaborate with other students and the teachers would
be able to give each student the required attention. 1117 schools have
benefitted from the project in the last 5 years
 Tertiary Institutions Access Project (TiAP) - This project ensure the USPF
promotes e-learning in tertiary institutions by facilitating technologyenabled research and learning. The provision of internet access would
support . 204 institutions have benefitted
 E-Library - The E-library Project is a platform to connect the existing
libraries in the country to enable the sharing of information and other
resources as well as connect to other libraries outside the country. 74
libraries have benefited from this initiative
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PROGRAMMES AND PROJECTS CONTD
 Community Communications Center (CCC), The CCC is a community-
based ICT centre that is set up to provide telephony and internet services
as well as ICT-based training and other services on a shared basis. 195
Centres have been deployed in various communities.
 BTS Projects - This programme involves granting of subsidies for the
deployment of Base Transceiver Stations (BTS) and other passive
infrastructure in underserved and un-served communities in Nigeria to
accelerated mobile voice and mobile broadband coverage via GPRS, EVDO,
3G, etc. 78 sites have been constructed by the various mobile operators.
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PROGRAMMES AND PROJECTS CONTD.
 Rural Broadband Initiative (RuBI): This programme will result in the
provision of Internet services and applications that would support socioeconomic activities in the unserved and underserved communities. The
Rural broadband Initiative thus seeks to support the establishment of core
delivery mechanisms for Broadband services in the rural / semi-urban
areas of Nigeria. 18 pilot wireless mobile broadband hot spots are being
constructed in the six geopolitical zones the country
 Backbone Transmission Infrastructure (BTRAIN): The Universal Service
Provision Fund within this programme, provide incentives to industry
operators to build out the optic fibre cable network from major
cities/towns where they currently exist to surrounding communities which
have been classified as unserved especially in terms of internet
infrastructure. 500km of OFC is currently being deployed across the
country
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CONCLUSION
The importance of ICT in improving lives has been globally
acknowledged. Developing effective ways to extend access to
telecommunication and ICT services to poor and remote
communities and to the unserved and underserved areas of
Nigeria in meeting the targets of WSIS Plan of Action is the
challenge the USPF confronts.
The low incomes, the small size of communities, and the large
investments required because of the lack of infrastructure
backbone (and in some cases difficult terrain) are all key
issues in designing viable options for universal access.
Through all of these, the goal of the USPF remains the same,
simply to bridge the gap between the information rich and the
information poor and to enable user-friendly and affordable
access to ICT facilities and services for every Nigerian
regardless of the region of the country they reside, hence
creating an enabling environment to drive socio- economic
development in the country.
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CONCLUSIONS
 It is the belief of the USP Management that the World Summit of
Information Society (WSIS) declaration – Everyone, everywhere
should have the opportunity to participate and no one should
be excluded from the benefits the Information Society offers –
is attainable in Nigeria.
The digital divide can be bridged and Nigeria can be transformed
into digital economies like in India, Japan, Singapore and
Malaysia.
It is our believe that Nigeria’s youth MUST be equipped with
appropriate ICT skills to enable them compete favorably with
their contemporaries anywhere in the world.
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Please visit our website:
www.uspf.gov.ng
for additional information
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