Nigeria Can’t Win Battle Against Insecurity Without 5G Network– Pantami

… As NIN Registration Hits 70 Million In December

The Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, has said that the deployment of 5G will help address the country’s security challenges.

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Pantami said this on Monday at the 3.5 GHz Spectrum Auction for the deployment of the 5G network in Abuja.

Nigeria is planning to deploy the technology under the National Policy on Fifth Generation (5G) Networks for Nigeria’s Digital Economy.

The technology was largely criticized in 2020 leading to an investigation into its health implications.

Pantami said when the general benefits of the 5G is considered, the country will truly stand out as the giant of Africa.

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He said, “If 5G is utilized effectively by our security institutions, it will go a long way in addressing many security challenges we have today in Nigeria.

“Firstly, there are many benefits of 5G over 2G, 3G and even 4G particularly, the mutual authentication of its network and 5G network is encrypted.

“So, this will provide an avenue for our security institutions to leverage on the technology and deploy many emerging technologies in the country to handle the security challenges we are being confronted with.

“Today, if you want to address the issue of insecurity, you will need things like robotics, internet of things and artificial intelligence. you will need big data analytics. All these emerging technologies cannot be deployed effectively without 5G, because 5G gives you real time communications.”

He said with real time communications, all the gadgets can be deployed and utilised effectively to handle security challenges in the country.

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“This is the approach globally and this the best practice globally, At the top of our agenda for 5G deployment is to support our security institutions, to provide the network so that they can leverage on and address the security challenges head on,” he added.

According to him, there are seven requirements of effective security management which include: command, control, communications, computer, information gathering and intelligence gathering.

Pantami said, “It is because of this we feel that if 5G is deployed in Nigeria, it will support our economic development, not only within the ICT sector alone, but all other sectors will leverage on the key enabler of their success.”

The minister further revealed the successes recorded in the issuing of the National Identity Number overseen by the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC).

Pantami said identity is key to 5G as there is identity encryption in the deployment of the technology.

Pantami said, “Let us not forget that as of October last year, 2020 when Mr. President directed me to supervise NIMC, the total enrollment in their database was just a little higher than 40million.

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“That 40 million was achieved from 2007 to 2020 which is around thirteen years. But within little more than a year and now we are in December 2021, a little more than a year, the total enrollment as of last week is more than 70 million.

“This has been achieved without releasing one naira to NIMC as at today. There has been an approval granted by the Federal Government of Nigeria but the money is yet to be released to the management. They are yet to receive it, but it has been approved.”

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