Dec 3rd, 2011 | By admin | Category: Blogging Workshop, Blogosphere News, ICT News


The whole of Ipinle Omoluabi – Osun State, Nigeria, would soon become one huge wireless hot spot – a digital city! Over 105Km Radius of IP Network, unparalleled in the digital history of Nigeria.

Mr. Aderemi Ojikutu, the Personal Adviser to the Governor of Osun State on ICT Applications gave this short briefing in FCT, Abuja, after the Annual General Meeting of the Information Technology (Industry) Association [ITAN] last week.

“The first phase of the roll out of the IP Network of Osun State (called “Digital Canopy”) started on Monday 5th of September, 2011. A technical due diligence was conducted by the two JV partners (Bradtech and Corenet Solutions) and by Saturday the 17th of December 2011, the project would be ready for commissioning, A Pilot Test (PROOF OF CONCEPT) of 4-6 weeks (17-12-2011 to 27-01-2012) will begin across the digital space of Ipinle Omoluabi, and spilling over to neighbouring Cities/States like Ogbomosho in Oyo State, Offa in Kwara State, Ondo, etc. and covering all campuses of tertiary (Both Federal and State owned educational institutions) will be covered in the first phase.”

He said further: “…we are set to redefine connectivity in Nigeria, with about 100 Million USD coming as FDI into the economy of Osun State next 12 months by investors from China and the USA, for development of energy and power, the new cry of investors is: ‘Europe is dead, you don’t put money on a dead horse, Africa waiting for a win-win relationship’. We need a connected government, connected people and a connected market to drive the digital revolution in technology, and Osun State is ready to provide that.”

“In the next two years, a great and enthusiastic population of 20,000 Techies and geeks would be trained and unleashed into the digital space by the Government of Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, they shall be assembling laptops and other mobile devices including phones, repairing, trouble-shooting. Another new generation of digitally compliant students and youth 150,000-strong would be equipped and trained on their tablets to increase their computer skills right from Secondary schools, there is no better time to prepare than now to take this digital opportunities to expand the frontiers of technology in Osun State and Nigeria.”

“When our administration came on board, we discovered that we were sitting on a buried treasure, one local government here in Osun State has the largest concentration of internet traffic in Nigeria, Lagos with all its sophistication and mega-commerce came a distant second position, followed closely by Yola – ABTI American University of Nigeria in Adamawa state. This survey set us thinking and this Digital City is the product and expression of those ingenious thoughts.”

“The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is talking of cashless economy from next year 2012, Osun State will be first State in Nigeria to provide digital infrastructure for all the POS and ATMs to ride on, that is the implication of this digital revolution.”