The Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Isa Pantami, has said Nigerians should ignore the concerns being raised by some persons about the fifth-generation (5G) network and stated that the 5G networks are not harmful in any way.
Pantami issued this statement after the recent weekly Federal Executive Council meeting in Abuja. He also said the National Policy on the fifth-generation (5G) network in Nigeria has been approved.
According to Pantami, the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) have confirmed that the network is not harmful to people’s health.
He said: “Both of them confirm that there are no any adverse health effects of 5G and it has not been proven to be any harmful to our health.
“Most importantly, even its frequency and radiation is even lower than that of 4G, and it is lower than the televisions and microwave we have at home. So, they have already issued that. They explained about its safety, and also advised nations on the regulations and the standards to be used in the course of the deployment.
“And this is something that the Nigerian Communications Commission has been directed to ensure that all standards, and regulations are complied with. Furthermore, you will all recall that in order to create awareness and sensitise our citizens, the Nigerian Communications Commission has been reaching out to citizens through local languages to tell them the advantages of 5G and where we need it.”
The Minister remarked that the advantages of using a 5G network include larger capacity, higher data rates among other economic, health, security and educational opportunities.
He said: “That policy has been approved by the Federal Executive Council today. Furthermore, the policy discusses the benefits to be attained through the deployment of 5G in Nigeria and in any part of the world which includes lower latency, larger capacity, and higher data rate.
These are the three major benefits of the fifth generation. And in a simple language, we can say it will open many opportunities economically, academically, educationally, and even in the health sector. And it will also support our security institutions, particularly in areas where they need high-quality services.”
