Media practitioners, Tuesday, advocated huge investment in building and upgrading the digital public infrastructure (DPI) in the country.
This, according to them, includes expanding broadband access, enhancing network connectivity, and deploying reliable power sources to support digital services in remote areas.
They spoke in Abuja at a forum on the status of Digital Public Infrastructure in Nigeria: Progress, Challenges and Prospects, which was organised by the Media Foundation for West (MFWA) in partnership with the International Press Centre (IPC).
In his address, the National Secretary of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Comrade Achike Chude, who highlighted the importance of the media to nation-building, called for adequate investment in the development of the DPI in the country.
Chude, however, called for the protection of Nigerians’ privacy in the deployment of DP1 and urged them to use it for the advancement of the country.
Also speaking, a Fellow of MFWA, Mr Usman Aliyu, who disclosed that Nigeria had improved in the deployment of DPI, lamented that 10 years after its takeoff, access to the rural areas remains a challenge.
Aliyu who is of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), called on the policymakers to enact policies that would create an enabling environment for digital innovation and its access in the rural areas.
In his presentation, another Fellow of MFWA, Mr Ameh Ejekwonyilo, lamented that there was no adequate deployment of broadband and fibre cable in some communities in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
Ejekwonyilo, who is a senior reporter with Premium Times, called for huge investment in DPI to ease off its access in the rural areas and urged the Federal Government to put in place the needed infrastructure that would allow Nigerians to enjoy the 5G service.
