Oghenevwede Ohwovoriole in Abuja 

The Minister of Communications Innovation and Digital Economy Dr. Bosun Tijani has said the country will leverage on the platform of the Nigerian Communications Satellite Limited (NigComSat), to take telemedic to the unserved communities.

The minister stated this in Abuja during the launch of My Smart Medic Application by UNICCON Group recently.

The minister who was represented by the Director, National Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (NCAIR), Ajala Olubumi, said: “For technology like this to really have that transformation, we must have connectivity. And we still have about 20 million Nigerians that have no access at all to internet. We’re leveraging on that, combining the NigComSat, we could basically beam internet to locations, because Nigeria is just one of the nations in West Africa with her our own satellite.”

Chairman UNICCON Group, Chuks Ewerem, said: “Wwe really studied the Nigerian healthcare sector and know the gap, and that is exactly what we have come to fill. We have built the device in such a way that there are native aspects of it, which generates from the device the edge computing. The device is designed in such a way that users can still have access to the internet, in the midst of sudden network failure.”

The National Commissioner, National Data Protection Commission, (NDPC), Dr. Vincent Olatunji, who was represented by the Commission’s legal officer, Alexander Onwe, said: “Telemedicine holds transformative promise. But innovation without trust leads to resistance, and trust without innovation leads to stagnation. Our responsibility as government, private sector, development partners, is to achieve both.”

Olatunji reaffirmed the commitment of the Nigeria Data Protection Commission to support digital health innovation, protect patient rights, strengthen regulatory clarity, promote responsible use of emerging technologies and to build a trusted, inclusive, secure digital future for Nigeria and Africa.
“NDPC is your partner in ensuring that no citizen is left behind in this digital healthcare transition, and that every digital interaction reinforces confidence, safety, and value,” Olatunji said.