The Minister of Commu nications and Technology, Mrs Omobola Johnson said that a presidential committee would soon be inaugurated to develop a national broadband penetration roadmap.

Johnson said at the Nigeria Broadband Forum in Lagos that the committee would define the milestone for the provision of affordable and accessible broadband services.

The forum with the theme, “Demand as catalyst for broadband services in Nigeria”, was organised by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).

She said the Federal Government remained committed to use broadband to penetrate the nation’s underserved areas not reached by telecommunication network.

The minister said that the committee would include various Information Communication and Technology(ICT) stakeholders, who would advise government on broadband implementation.

She said that government’s commitment stemmed from the potential of broadband in economic development, education delivery, healthcare provision, energy management as well as government/citizen interaction.

Johnson said that having a universal internet capacity and a national ICT backbone for data traffic was as important as power and water infrastructure.

According to her, all over the world, broadband has become a significant indicator of development and competitiveness.

“Every 10 per cent increase in access to broadband in developing countries results in a commensurate 1.38 increase in GDP; these statistics should provide the impetus to meet broadband demand, “ the minister said.

She said that the government’s intention was to increase broadband penetration five-fold by the end of  2017.

“Our objectives for broadband are threefold; the first is to accelerate the penetration of reasonably priced broadband internet in the country,’’ Johnson said.

She said the other objective was to “foster broadband usage for national development and to ensure the rapid development of a development of broadband policy support and implementation framework.”