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Following U.S. calls for countries to follow its footsteps to ban Huawei Technologies on national security grounds, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has said Nigeria will roll out 5G networks itself, “talking about the equipment and technology”.
TheNewsGuru (TNG) reports Osinbajo stated this on Monday at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York City, when quizzed, after his opening remarks at the event, about the ongoing international dispute regarding some global technology firms and the issue of 5G.
He explained that even though Nigeria is yet to roll out 5G, “we do not have those complications (comparatively) in taking decisions in that regard. But, we practically welcome every company that wants to do business with us in Nigeria. Huawei is in Nigeria and so are all the other technology companies.
“We haven’t gone through any kind of decision making for rolling out the 5G technology. As a matter of fact we are going to roll out 5G ourselves. Talking about the equipment and technology; how did the Chinese get it? How did anyone else get the technology? We will do it ourselves”.
Speaking further, the Vice President said the potential, effort and impact being made by Nigerians in technology can enable the country roll out indigenous technology solutions that can transform the global space.
Osinbajo, who was optimistic about the possibility to developing homegrown capacity in the technology space said government would leverage the efforts and resourcefulness of youths to actualize its potentials in the sector.
“Our potential in technology and entertainment has been attracting huge attention. First is the market, at 174 million GSM phones, we are among the top ten telephone users in the world, and we have the highest percentage of people who use internet on their phones in the world.
“We are also number two in mobile internet banking in the world, and 17 million Nigerians are on Facebook. Microsoft has announced that it will establish a 100 million dollar African Development Centre in Nigeria.
“Second is the ever-growing number of technology startups, young digital entrepreneurs who are creating solutions to value chain and logistics challenges and creating thousands of jobs in the process. Andela, a software company training software developers for many Fortune 500 companies received a $24m dollar investment from Facebook,” he said.