FG is going to spend about N2.323 billion on Internet access in 2017 - report

It may not look like it, but the Nigerian government does use the internet and various kinds internet-enabled technologies in carrying its day-to-day functions. As the conversation around cutting wasteful government spending continues, it seems the government will be spending a lot on internet access and services.

According to a report by Nigeria CommunicationsWeek, the Nigerian government (or 593 of its organisations) will be spending around N2.323 Billion in 2017 “on internet access charges and provision of information technology facilities,” assuming there are no other changes to the national budget (and you thought I was going to say cake).

The report also highlights that the total sum does not include “interventions” by ‘donor’ government agencies such as NITDA, NCC, CBN and PTDF. It also doesn’t include “Funding of Galaxy Backbone Infrastructure,” by GalaxyBackbone, the government-backed Internet Service Provider (ISP).

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It (the report) also says the highest allocation from the [internet spend] budget goes to the Directorate of State Security Service (DSSS) with N51 million while the smallest allocation goes to the Centre for Disease and Control (CDC) with about N49, 394. That last bit seems a bit weird, but in Nigeria, you never know.

There aren’t a lot of details on how the government intends to spend all that money on internet access — which ISP will the various agencies use? How much data/traffic do government agencies generate? What is the internet access being used for exactly? Does it include surveillance? — but as per regularly scheduled programming, its anyone’s guess.