Imo State has approved a Right of Way (RoW) charge reduction from ₦4,500 to ₦145 per meter. Last week, Ekiti State became the first state to reduce its RoW charge to ₦145 as recommended by the Federal Government.
Telecommunication companies pay RoW to deploy cables that facilitate high-speed internet connectivity. Other states may follow suit to ease communication and collaboration across the nation following the COVID-19 induced lockdown.
The reduction was a manifestation of our Government’s determination to spur the telecommunication companies to further invest in broadband infrastructure and trigger ancillary on-line services, especially in the field of education.
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The Government is hopeful that this drastic reduction from N4500 of the broadband ROW to N145 per line meter of fibre will accelerate the deployment of affordable and reliable modern high-speed connectivity in the State.
This was to ease the cost of deploying the necessary infrastructure that would aid the National Broadband Penetration plan by telcos. Despite this decision, many states didn’t obey for several years. States like Lagos increased RoW charges from N500 per meter to N5,000 per meter on state roads. Other states have also gone on to charge as much as N6,000 per metre.
This has slowed the deployment of broadband infrastructure across the country as Infrastructure Companies (InfraCos) have not been to roll out as expected.
The Executive order urged telecommunication companies to note that the State plays host to vibrant and youthful demography located in many tertiary institutions, who form the bulk of the end-users of their products.
