Nigeria news - 28 May 2005

Nigeria: With a population of about 130m and only 12m fixed lines, Nigeria is missing telecommunications means, particularly in rural areas. The government is decided to launch a sustained effort to bring telecom to the population and not only in urban areas. In rural areas, vendors and third parties are invited to operate and run such a project. Already Alcatel Shanghai Bell is introducing telephone services in 108 local governments in the first phase, and ZTE will cover another 110 local governments in the second phase. The government of Nigeria has announced that it has invested nearly $8billion in the country's telecommunications sector so far, and $100m worth of equipment had been imported.