The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has disclosed that, according to available data within its reach, Nigerians with access to fast Internet had grown by 108.39 per cent in four years.

The commission’s portal revealed that broadband penetration increased from 38.72 million (20.28 per cent) in March 2018 to 80.68 million (42.27 per cent) in March 2022.

According to the ‘Nigerian National Broadband Plan (2020 – 2025),’ broadband commonly refers to high-speed Internet connection.

It added that broadband penetration was measured by the number of broadband subscribers per 100 inhabitants.

In the broadband plan document, the President, Muhammadu Buhari, was quoted as saying, “I am told that every 10 per cent increase in broadband penetration results in about 2.6 per cent to 3.8 per cent growth in GDP.”

According to data from the NCC’s portal, the contribution of the telecoms industry to GDP increased from 9.19 per cent in Q1 2018 to 12.61 per cent in Q4 2021.

The broadband plan intends to effectively cover 90 per cent of the population and deliver 25 Mbps in urban areas, and 10 Mbps in rural areas.

It added, “Rapid rollout of broadband services will address various socio-economic challenges faced by the country, including the need to grow its economy, create jobs, rapidly expand the tax base, and improve digital literacy and educational standards.

“This will also address identity management and security challenges through the effective use of technology, increase financial inclusion and deliver a broad range of services to its people to improve the quality of life and work towards attainment of Social Development Goals set by the UN for 2030.”

It further stated that a 4G LTE network was needed to achieve the kind of download speeds Nigerians need.

When the broadband plan was released, most of the Internet service in the country was reportedly on 2G and 4G. It said, “Internet services in the country are currently provided on 2G, 3G, and increasingly 4G mobile networks.

“However, though 4G coverage is available to 37 per cent of the population, download speeds in the country are noted to be generally uncompetitive with other countries in the same income bracket.”

According to the plan, it costs $3.5 – $5bn to achieve its aim. Much of the growth in broadband penetration is being driven by telecommunication firms.

In their recent earnings reports, MTN Nigeria Communications Plc. and Airtel Africa disclosed that they invested a combined N208.56bn in the Fourth-Generation (4G) network and others in the first quarter of 2022.

MTN also disclosed that 4G, which implies faster Internet, now accounts for 76 per cent of its data traffic and covers about 72 per cent of the population. Airtel added that 99 percent of its sites in Nigeria now had 4G capabilities.

According to the World Bank, a 10 per cent increase in mobile broadband penetration could lead to about a 2.46 per cent growth in Africa.

This is also a clarion call to the government to tighten regulations in the telecom sector, so consumers would acquire the exact services of what they are paying for. This would definitely encourage more access to the internet on a regular basis, thereby boosting the country’s economic worth.

Hence, the existing policies are required to be reviewed and updated for greater efficiency.

Talk360, a South African startup has closed a $4 million seed funding round led by HAVAIC, a venture capital and advisory firm based in Cape Town, South Africa. Other investors include Gaston Aussems (ex-Mollie), Robert Kraal (ex-Adyen), Gabriel de Montessuss (President WorldPay International) and Marnix van der Ploeg (ex-Booking.com and EQT).

Talk360 offers an international calling app that allows reliable and affordable phone calls to any offline landline or mobile phone in the world. It is a simple app that helps people call their friends, reach out to their family, and speak with their loved ones over the phone. Only the initiator of the call needs a smartphone, the calling app and internet to make calls.

But besides this, the company is on a mission to solve a huge friction in African markets. Talk360 is working to create a new payment platform that will integrate all available payment options across Africa. This will trim the number of service providers that companies operating in Africa will onboard to cater for the unique preferences emanating from the continent’s diversity.

According to Talk360, the product will open up businesses to the largest pool of localized payment options in Africa. The company plans to use the newly raised fund to expand its call business across the African continent.

With existing partnerships with agents like PesaPoint in Kenya and Flash in South Africa, Talk360 enables users to purchase airtime vouchers from a network of over 750,000 physical points of sale. South Africa, Zimbabwe and Bangladesh are among its biggest markets. Talk360 co-founder and managing director for Africa Dean Hiine told TechCrunch he anticipates great growth for its payment platform, which he says will also make it easy for international merchants to sell to users in Africa too. He added that the startup decided to build its own payment platform informed by the need to make payment and checkout easy for its users in Africa.

According to Hiine, the plan is to integrate different payment systems. He says his new platform will bring all the “scattered payment methods” across Africa on a common platform, which he believes will positively impact Talk360’s bottom line, and that of other merchants that will use its platform.

“In our calling business we identified some unique problems around digital payment in Africa. The payment methods are scattered and payment processes are lengthy…And we could see that this problem had a serious impact on our bottom line in terms of conversion rate we were seeing in Africa…It is a problem we experienced and we are trying to solve for other merchants with a presence in the continent too by making the process fast and easy,” said Hiine.

“We are building the platform to actually increase our conversion rate by giving the user experience one single checkout, and to some level, offer predictive analysis– to tell the preferred methods of payment for that region and offer them as top options for the user,” said Hiine.

Since it was co-founded in 2016 by Hiine, Hans Osnabrugge, and Jorne Schamp, Talk360 has grown to be in use in 170 countries, connecting 2 million people in 2021. The current model, which was born from the need to compete with internet calls powered by social media platforms such as WhatsApp, has seen Talk360 pitching its tent in many markets across the globe. This means, setting up a hub in markets in East and South Africa.

The app was previously designed to help people on foreign trips beat roaming.