President of the Senate and former Governor of Kwara State, Dr. Bukola Saraki has commended MTN Nigeria for investing in the 4G Long Term Evolution. He said the recent launch of the technology will among other things give impetus to the National Assembly’s drive to provide legislature that will leverage technology to accelerate the growth of businesses in Nigeria and deepen youth\s drive to job creation.
Committee Chairman on Communication, Senator Gilbert Nnaji, who represented the Senate President at the launch in Abuja noted that the MTN 4G LTE now places Nigeria among one of the 148 countries globally, 28 in Africa and seventh in West Africa. The launch is expected to achieve the targeted 30 percent National Broadband penetration by 2018.
Earlier during the launch, MTN’s Chief Executive Officer, Ferdi Moolman, who was represented by the company’s Chief Operating Officer, Mohammed Siddiqui, said the deployment of MTN 4G LTE will not only enhance browsing experience across Nigeria but will also accelerate the achievement of the country’s targeted broadband penetration by 2018.
According to him, “We are excited to officially roll-out MTN 4G LTE services to our esteemed customers. By leveraging on our network, it promises to be the widest LTE coverage in Nigeria. With the acquisition of the 2.6GHZ spectrum earlier this year, our objective was clear: to build capacity to accommodate 4G LTE for the benefit of Nigerians because it is the fastest wireless Internet connection available today. In fulfilling that objective, we have embarked on aggressive optimization of our sites to beef up our capacity for 4G LTE,” he stated.
Corporate Services Executive, Amina Oyagbola, stated that MTN’s 4G LTE service is presently available in Abuja, Lagos and Port Harcourt, also announced that plans were underway to expand the 4G LTE service to other parts of the country.
Other major telecoms companies have also keyed into the introduction of 4G LTE within the period under review in Nigeria, thus driving the needed competition to deepen the sectorial growth in the country.
