Members want free Internet for hospitals and public schools.

The House of Representatives has started the process of offering Nigerians free internet access in a few public locations.

This comes after a bill sponsored by Mr. Abubakar Kusada, the representative of Katsina State’s Kankia/Ingawa/Kusada Federal Constituency, was passed last week during its first reading. The bill is named “An Act to provide the legal framework for the free internet access programme in selected public places in Nigeria and for other related matters.”

Rallying support for the bill, Kusada underlined the policy to “promote an environment for the development of structures that would ensure availability and accessibility to reliable and secure internet access,” noting that Nigeria recognizes the critical role of ICT in nation-building.

The law text will apply to public hospitals, including health centers in remote areas, secondary and tertiary institutions, and federal, state, and municipal government agencies. Public parks, plazas, libraries, reading centers, public airports and seaports, police, Army, Navy, and Customs barracks, and public transportation terminals are among the other locations mentioned.

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The first section of the bill states that users would not be charged a fee to connect to public internet access points. The free internet service offered must be kept apart from the internet service utilized by government agencies for databases, backend computer systems and programs, management, and information systems; however, shared infrastructure use must the online advocacy group Nigerian online Group.

The bill requires NCC and NITDA to “develop a comprehensive plan for the timely and effective implementation and propagation of this program within one year of the commencement of this Act” in order to manage the proposed law. In order to “ensure that the comprehensive plan is integrated with the plans and budgets of all agencies mandated to provide free internet access under this program,” the two agencies must also “liaise with federal, state, and local government areas, other relevant agencies, private sector entities, the Nigeria Internet Group, and concerned organizations.”

Furthermore, the measure grants the two agencies the authority to “adopt contracts to undertake the establishment of policies, regulations, and the timely and efficient implementation of this Act.

the execution of this Act in accordance with current rules and regulations; and secure program funding from any source, including public, private, and international.”

When implementing this, NCC and NITDA are required to guarantee that each user has a minimum internet speed of two megabytes per second, or the speed specified under the National Broadband Plan, whichever is faster.

Additionally, the measure promotes collaborations to guarantee effective service delivery.

“To foster an effective and economical delivery of free internet access in public places, NCC and NITDA may collaborate with the private sector in the execution of the program,” reads Section 6(1).

Additionally, it permits the following: “Private sector partners’ excess capacity may be supplied to deliver supplemental internet access service to the user in the regions where program facilities are situated, given that those people or organizations register as value-added service providers with the NCC.

Private service providers are encouraged to trade data prices through domestic internet protocol exchanges, which may be designated by NCC and NITDA, in order to lower costs and improve access.

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