Nigeria and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the UN specialised agency for the global ICT sector, have held talks on protection of undersea cables.
The talks following the recent cuts of undersea cables off the coast of West Africa will seek ways to protect these critical communication infrastructure, Dr. ‘Bosun Tijani, Nigeria’s Minister of Communications Innovation and Digital Economy, has said.
The Nigerian Minister said he held talks with Tomas Lamanauskas, ITU Deputy Secretary General to explore collaborations in protecting undersea cables, both regionally and globally.
“I spoke about my desire to initiate dialogue on building resilience in our digital infrastructure, so I was pleased to meet with Tomas Lamanauskas the Deputy Secretary General of the ITU, in Geneva today to kickstart action on organising regional and global efforts for the protection of submarine cables and other digital infrastructure,” Tijani said.
Moving on, the Deputy Secretary-General and the Minister discussed the review of global laws with relevant government and private sector stakeholders to ensure the enhancement of global digital resilience plans.
Also, building investment models for expanding broadband penetration on a global scale, with Nigeria’s Broadband Alliance and Fibre fund as potential case studies for other global markets, were discussed.
According to the Nigerian Minister, “an immediate action point, we will be engaging African countries and partners at a stakeholder roundtable in Abuja, to chart a path towards building resilience in our digital infrastructure which remains a critical backbone for national development.”
