STAKEHOLDERS in the telecommunications sector have lamented what they described as huge Internet transmission cost in Nigeria.

This is coming on the heels of the presence of about four sub-marine cables put at about N347 billion in the country and an increase in the number of Internet.

Indeed, Nigeria leads other African countries with about 47 million Internet users. The country also paraded fibre cables including MainOne; Glo 1; SAT3 and WACS.

Speaking at the Nigeria Internet Group (NIG) yearly conference and exhibition in Lagos at the weekend, the Vice President, Destiny Amana, said “In as much as we now talk about having increased access to the internet, people are still complaining about high cost of internet access in-country.”

He stated that with estimated population of 174 million currently in Nigeria, having an internet user profile of 47 million at present was still unacceptable, saying efforts needed to be strengthened to drive ubiquitous broadband in the country.

Amana said the need to focus on ubiquitous internet access has informed the theme of this year’s NIG conference titled “Broadband as Tool in Nation Building.”

He, however, noted factors responsible for the high cost of internet in the country such as exorbitant Right of Way charges by the government at all levels, vandalism and theft of cable infrastructures.

“We need to address these issues as it cost more money to deploy network from Lagos to Abuja than it cost to link Nigeria to London,” he said.

Though the forum witnessed as poor turnout just as it did in 2012, few key stakeholders who attended the forum also made major contributions on issues surrounding internet access and governance.

Besides, Nigerians have also been urged to leverage internet for positive activities that can contribute to legitimate personal gains and overall economic development in the country. This, according to former NIG President, Mr. Lanre Ajayi, has become imperative if the broadband facilities in the country must be fully explored.

According to him, “without doubt, access to the internet should be declared a fundamental human right of every citizen in Nigeria, as it is the case in developed countries; yet, this access should not be abused by using internet for illicit activities.”

Chief Executive Officer, Paradigm Initiative Nigeria, Mr. Gbenga Sesan, who bemoaned the increasing wave of cyber security in the country, also wondered why Nigeria, as a country, had found it difficult to put in place cybercrime legislation.

“Cybercrime awareness is one area where Nigeria needs to pay greater attention to. It is unthinkable that a country currently branded with increasing cybercrimes such as Nigeria does not yet have cyber legations.”

Sesan noted that though, there were a number of cyber security-related bills pending at the National Assembly. “There is need to harmonise all these bills, make them more robust, comprehensive and all-encompassing and then pass into law.”

He said the increase in online transactions being engendered by emergence of online retail stores as well as the cashless economic policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria has made it necessary to secure the country’s cyber space.

Earlier, the chairman of the occasion and former minister of communications in Nigeria, Mr. Olawale Ige, said it was also critical for government to address intercultural deficit in the country, especially the issue of power, which Ige said, was key to broadband Internet access in all the nooks and crannies of the country.