Benue, service providers sign N10.8b MoU on digital infrastructure

The Deputy Governor of Benue State, Samuel Ode has reiterated the determination of the State to embark on digital infrastructure development project with Initial take off cost N10, 8b.
He said the project when fully in place will not only tackle insecurity but enhance the revenue of the state, data protection, traffic management, motor traffic management and other areas.
He spoke at Huawei Technologies Center, Central Business District, Abuja at a Memorandum of Understanding Signing Ceremony for all Service Providers and Benue Digital Infrastructure Company (BDIC) on Tuesday.
According to Ode, “The executive governor of Benue State, Reverend Father Dr. Hyacinth Alia as chairman of the BNSTC Council on the 3rd of May 2024 along with other council members including myself as vice chairman, approved the Benue infrastructure development project.
“Consequently, he nominated me as a chairman of the Implementation Committee.”
He said the signing ceremony of the relationship that is about to commence between Benue State Government and service providers and other stakeholders is a conscious effort to reposition the state to align with the international best practice in the provision of the digital infrastructure projects for the service of the state and beyond.
“One of the charge that I gave to the committee upon inauguration was that we were going to move away from the normal bureaucratic bottlenecks that usually impede the smooth implementation of programs and projects for governments.
“For those of you in the corporate world and the private sector your biggest fear in dealing with government and agencies of government is bureaucratic bottlenecks and the second aspect of it is corruption.
“The Benue government is bold enough to embrace technology because we believe that we have nothing to hide. We want to join the rest of the world and do what is right at all times.
“We have decided that we will move with the speed of light and walk the talk in doing these jobs we have avoided.

“We have avoided the endless meetings that are always associated with government programs. We have tried to be as businesslike as possible. And that’s why today we are here to join all of you to execute this memorandum of understanding.
“I think today marks the watershed for the implementation of this very important project.
The Deputy Governor said the State Government on the journey will abide by all the rules, the laws and the regulations that will govern the relationship as they start today moving forward.
“We are going to keep our books open
and all the implementation strategies at every point in time will be communicated to all stakeholders we intend to do this business as a business and not as another extension of government.
“We’re here to give you this assurance as a form of comfort so that we can all be on the same page. I want to thank our hosts, Huawei, who have given us this platform.
While fielding questions from newsmen at the occasion on whether the project is going to ensure the empowerment of youths and also create job opportunities he indicated that a major core of the investment platform is the training of youths in ICT.
The Deputy Governor pointed out that even before the initiative the Government had embarked on the plan to train about 60,000 youths.
“We have already started with 10,000 and paid fully for that service. So by the time we develop this platform, you can imagine the number that we’ll be dealing with. For us, we, as state, we know that that’s the best way to go. ”
On how specifically the infrastructure will tackle insecurity, he said,
“The details of the security architecture that is going to be covered by this initiative is better not discussed publicly. But I can assure you that when we deploy, the benefits of this infrastructure will cover just beyond security. “We’re talking about data protection, we’re talking about traffic management, motor traffic management, we are talking about enhanced revenue and all of that.
“You know there is a nexus around unemployment and the insecurity you find around this country today. If we are able to lift our youth out of the streets, you know, and lift them out of poverty, most of these things you see today will not happen because they will not be available to be recruited for antisocial activities and syndicated crime.
“You have a moving train moving at a very high speed, and it comes to a station, and you have the opportunity to hop onto that train, and the train moves again. That’s where we are. The digital world is moving at a very fast pace.
“The Benue State government has only identified that we need to jump onto that train for us to be able to move to the next station. And that’s the opportunity that we have. So there is not stopping this project. It’s a global trend. And so we’re just jumping into a train that’s already moving.
“We don’t even have the ability to stop it. So I give you that assurance. It’s just not a pathway. This is a relationship of stakeholders who have carved a niche for themselves in this particular sector.
“So you have my assurance that we have done due diligence to identify the partners that are assembled here in this hall today and for us we believe that there is no stopping us.
“Talking about funding, we need to be very careful about talking about exact figures. The project analysis, the cost analysis, have been done quite all right. But we still need to sit down and develop a plan. So the funding of this project is a continuous exercise.
He gave the finatial projections to include initial take-off of N10.8b while the projected inflow is N158b, gross income is N77.5b and expected expenditure N86.4b
The companies involved included, Benue Digital Infrastructure Company PLC (BDIC), Gamint Corporate Ltd and
Unicloud Africa Limited