Absa, a leading pan-African Corporate and Investment Bank that offers its clients innovative advisory and financing solutions across multiple economic sectors, is fully aligned with the Federal Government of Nigeria’s aspiration of economic growth and development opportunity associated with the advent of launch of 5G technology in Nigeria.
According to the financial services institution, there are impressive, transformative economic growth opportunities inherent in the adoption of 5G technology as underlined by the Nigerian government’s approval of the National Policy on 5G Networks on September 8, 2021.
Following this approval, the federal government officially launched the policy as the driver of its digital economy agenda in Abuja on January 25, 2022.
The government sees the adoption of 5G networks as an opening to create jobs in the economy, improve operational transparency, drive sectoral productivity and expand the fight against insecurity.
Following a series of trials and exhaustive stakeholders’ engagements eliminating the perceived health risks associated with the 5G technology, President Muhammad Buhari, officially leading proceedings at the launch event, assured investors that as the rollout of the advanced network technology begins in earnest, the federal government will provide an enabling environment that supports robust investment in digital infrastructure.
Meanwhile, the leading pan-African Corporate and Investment Bank has expressed excitement at the launch of the national policy on 5G networks.
Sadiq Abu, the Chief Executive Officer, Absa Nigeria, said the policy would fast track the growth of the country’s digital economy.
“The race to keep pace with the rest of the globe demands urgent policy actions. Therefore, the launch of the national policy on 5G networks is laudable as it provides a fitting platform to drive the rollout of the 5G network on a national scale. Of course, this policy effort will make a difference in how sectors such as education, retail, health, manufacturing, and banking sectors are run with great implications on productivity, job creation, and revenue levels across sectors”, he explained.
He added, “Absa as a growth partner will leverage its global experience and robust investment network in the sector and beyond to support investors in maximising market opportunities with the potential to drive growth in the economy.”
Technology is a key driver of innovation. Innovation heralds changes that foster improved standard of living on a larger scale. The introduction of the 5G technology is poised to change sectoral operations, create new jobs in the digital space while impacting operations across every line of human endeavours.
5G technology is an advanced upgrade of previously existing wireless interconnectivity infrastructure such as the 2G, 3G and 4G. It is generally tagged as the fifth generation of wireless technology. The technology offers a high-speed, low-latency virtual reality world, as well as ultra-high-speed streaming which will grandly impact society in terms of how people commute, communicate, shop, bank, and produce the goods they consume.
A report by PwC forecasted that the advanced tech infrastructure will likely contribute $13.2 trillion worth of goods and services to the global economy by 2035.
According to the report, the tech infrastructure has the potential to create or transform up to 16 million jobs across all sectors of the economy, which includes full-time, part-time, and temporary jobs. It will also lead to the creation of industries not yet imagined leading to the emergence of extensive opportunities for the local population.
And, going by the disclosure made at the last Global Mobile Broadband Forum (MBBF) held in Dubai, over 500 million subscribers presently have access to commercial 5G networks in 176 countries. South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Hong Kong, the United States and Thailand top the list of countries where the new tech infrastructure has the widest coverage, revealed Statista.
Although the deployment of the tech infrastructure is at an experimental phase in most markets, the experiential impacts are already being felt. From the feedback at the MBBF, 5G technology is starting to empower different segments of the global economy.
It is, however, a matter of time before the ripple effects of 5G networks are felt in every corner of the world. This is why Nigeria’s launch of a national policy on the 5G network is a welcome development.
