Elon Musk’s internet company, Starlink, has been asked by the Federal Government of Nigeria to look into setting up programs to create jobs in Nigeria by having its hardware maintained and made there.
Dr. Bosun Tijani, Minister of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy, said this the following day. He said the talks occurred while the International Telecommunication Union-World Radio Communication (ITU-WRC) Conference occurred in Dubai. He said that he met with Ryan Goodnight, who is the Senior Director of Global Licensing and Activation for SpaceX.
He said they talked about how Starlink could make a program to train local installers and maintenance workers in Nigeria. They also discussed how Starlink could give hardware startups in the country contracts to make Starlink’s repeater boxes in their own country.
This occurred as the Minister was informed by a Starlink representative that Nigeria was the company’s largest market.
Read also: Musk’s Starlink hits Nigeria and Kenya with Jumia.
The Minister’s remarks
The Communications Minister announced a discussion on his X handle, stating: “Excellent conversation with @SpaceX’s Ryan Goodnight, Snr. Director, Global Licensing & Activation, at ITU-WRC 23. Nigeria is their largest African market. As demand for @Starlink grows, we discussed connecting unserved Nigerians and creating thousands of new jobs.
The Minister said they want every tech company to invest and strengthen our tech ecosystem.
What Starlink did in Nigeria
Starlink only publicly announced that it would be in Nigeria in January of this year, but people in Nigeria have been pre-ordering its hardware since last year.
Nigerians who wanted to switch service providers were very interested in Starlink, even though it cost more than other local ISPs.
People in places with bad internet connections are also more likely to choose Starlink because its satellite service is so standard.
Regarding customer numbers, Starlink is now one of the biggest ISPs in Nigeria, according to statistics released by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).
By the end of June, Starlink Nigeria had 6,756 customers. Many local ISPs in Nigeria that have been open for a while now have fewer than that many customers.
Starlink cut the price of its hardware by 21% last month to get a more significant share of the Nigerian ISP market and more users.
The price decrease brought the cost of Starlink’s tools down from N378,000 to N299,500.
The monthly fee to subscribe, on the other hand, stayed the same at N38,000.