From Benjamin Babine, Abuja
The National Assembly (NASS) Committee has called on the Federal Government to increase funding for Galaxy Backbone Ltd to help it operate equally with its private sector counterparts.
This was disclosed as the joint NASS committee on ICT and Cybercrime toured the new National Shared Services Centre as part of its oversight of the agency.
The Committee Chairman, Senator Yakubu Oseni in his presentation said that Nigeria still lags behind in digital sophistication, digital security and knowhow which are critical to the development agenda.
“As the agency of the Federal Government of Nigeria responsible for internet service provision and protection for MDAs, Galaxy Backbone has before it, the big task of ensuring that Nigeria is up to date with the rest of the world in the cyber technology domain,” Senator Yakubu Oseni said.
After the tour, the Committee emphasized that the remaining floors of complex be completed and equipped; data centre shaver to be built in the six geopolitical zones of the country; more tech and operations professionals should be involved to manage the operations; more metro and intercity fibre operations should be rolled out to improve internet and digital experience.
They also said more federal and state MDAs should get on the Galaxy Backbone network to improve their services to the nation; and they emphasized the importance research, development and innovation to ensure that the digital evolution journey is consistently met with the changes going on globally and locally.
The Committee commended the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Dr. Isa Pantami for his passionate and consistent in leading the Digital transformation vision of the Ministry and also applaud the Managing Director of Galaxy Backbone Limited for his creative administrative prowess and commitment and bringing great minds and team together to ensure Galaxy Backbone Ltd continues to deliver on its mandate and puts in the hand work to ensure that quality of service is improved across board.
In his remarks, the Managing Director of Galaxy Backbone Limited, Prof M. B Abubakar narrated the historical background of Galaxy Backbone and some of the major challenges facing the company which include inadequate funding, bureaucracy, internal internet security among other.