The Galaxy Backbone (GBB) Limited is strategising and strengthening its capacity to create jobs for the teeming Nigerian youth through digital innovation especially at this critical stage in the life of Nigeria.
The GBB has in the last couple of years been innovative in this drive through various efforts within Nigeria’s digital landscape as part of the broader agenda in Nigeria’s Digital Economy sector especially the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) to boost the diversification agenda of the federal government.
One of the biggest challenges in Nigeria today is youth unemployment. It’s estimated that Nigeria has nearly 40 per cent unemployment rate, which is disturbing. However, through meticulous plan and effective programme, the ICT sector is engaging the youth. This can be attested to with the recent collaboration between GBB and Microsoft to train the youth on capacity building and skill acquisition.
Last year the impact of the ICT manifested in the realisation of the $547 million from the sale of 3.5GHz spectrum to MTN and Mafab Communications for the provision of 5G network, which is a plus to the nation’s revenue drive and the GBB and other agencies collectively played very significant role in that success.
The National Shared Services Centre (NSSC) of the GBB, which was recently commissioned by former President Muhammadu Buhari hosts a cyber security operations centre, network centre and a call centre. It is the platform for digital connectivity for Ministries, Departments and Agencies(MDAs) to interface with the citizens.
GBB has used this digitally inclined centre to build skills and capacity of Nigerians to deepen the economic diversification agenda of the government and create the needed jobs. GBB was at the centre among the agencies that boosted the ICT and improved the country’s GDP, which according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) contributed an unprecedented 18.44 per cent to the GDP, in the Q2 of 2022 close to three times the 6.33 per cent contribution of the oil sector in the same quarter.
The GBB has also made enormous efforts in broadband/Internet penetration, skills acquisition for global competitiveness and infrastructure development, like the fibre optic cable, which was about 15,000kms in 2015 and increased to more than 60,000kms.
The need for digital inclusion and the drive towrds the 4th Industrial Revolution prompted the agency to use its multi-platform ICT infrastructure to connect over 400 Ministeries MDAs into a “one government” network platform known as 1-gov.net. This is currently deploying terrestrial (fibre) broadband connectivity to 30 states of the federation.
Talking about Nigeria’s capacity for transformation and the drive towards the 4th Industrial Revolution, the man leading the innovation in GBB- the managing director, Prof.Muhammad Bello Abubakar once expressed the imperative of the 4th Industrial Revolution and Nigeria ‘s readiness to the global trend with its digital creativity.
He said, “In today’s 4th Industrial Revolution World of rapid changes, driven by ubiquitous connectivity top the cyber world and advanced digital technologies such as Cloud Computing, Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence Augmented Reality, Robotics etc, it is no accident that most capitalised corporation from Apple, to Google, to Amazon to Microsoft etc, are the leading enablers of the World’s digital economy. Evidently, failure to embrace the new digital age will leave a nation stuck in the sands of time.
“It is in realisation of this fact that the federal government set up the Galaxy Backbone Limited in 2006 to drive digital inclusion in the public sector, underserved areas and other stakeholder’s communities – to complement the more significant progress in the ICT being recorded in the private sector economy.”
Despite the constraints, Galaxy Backbone has made significant strides to inspire the confidence of its customers, including becoming the first public sector establishment to attain the prestigious International Certifications that include the ISO 27001 in information Security Management; the ISO 20000 Certification in IT Services Management as well as the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards(PCI-DSS).
The NSSC of GBB has the capacity for Data Hosting, Collocation and Cloud Computing which has started to place Nigeria in a prominent position in the global digital landscape and it is hoped that Nigeria’s immense potential in this sector will boost its efforts to strengthen the “ Smart Africa” project to digitally connect all of Africa.
