Nigeria’s Federal Executive Council on Wednesday approved the National Policy on Fifth Generation (5G) Networks for the country’s Digital Economy.
The FEC the 5G Policy at its weekly meeting after a presentation by Isa Ali Ibrahim Pantami, the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy.
This was contained in a statement issued after the meeting by Dr Femi Adeluyi, the Technical Assistant on Information Technology to the Minister. It said the implementation of the National Policy is with immediate effect.
It has taken about two years to develop the National Policy, for the sake of extensive stakeholder engagement and the need to ensure adequate public awareness and sensitization.
Part of the development process was also a 3-month 5G trial that started from November 25, November 2019.
A report on that trial reviewed and studied the health and security implications of deploying 5G in Nigeria. This followed various claims by some groups in Nigeria regarding the potential health implications of the technology.
But some international organisations such as the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) have confirmed that the deployment of 5G networks leave no adverse health effects and are safe.
The 5G technology has been presented as having significant advantages over the current technologies.
These include much lower latency, higher bandwidth, greater device density, longer battery life for nodes and greater network flexibility. Several countries have already commenced the deployment of 5G and are enjoying its benefits. These countries include the United States, The United Kingdom, Republic of Korea, South Africa, and Lesotho.
As part of the deployment process, the National Frequency Management Council says it will make available spectrum to the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) for the Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) that meet all the required conditions. The council is chaired by Pantami.
