Nigeria’s digital foundations are now region-leading in a few concrete ways. Domestic traffic increasingly stays on-net: the Internet Exchange Point of Nigeria (IXPN) crossed 1 Tbps peak local traffic in 2025, an adoption milestone that reduces latency and costs and signals a mature interconnection market. International capacity is broad and redundant: legacy systems (SAT-3, MainOne, Glo-1, WACS) have been joined by Equiano (landed Lagos in 2022) and 2Africa (landed at Lagos and a second site in Akwa Ibom in 2024), improving diversity beyond the Lagos cluster.
On access and coverage, Nigeria runs with a clear national playbook. The National Broadband Plan 2020–2025 targets minimum speeds of 25 Mbps (urban) and 10 Mbps (rural) with ≥90% population coverage and affordability benchmarks, while the National Policy on 5G (2021) set the framework for spectrum awards and commercial rollout. Recent initiatives like the National Broadband Alliance for Nigeria (NBAN) aim to accelerate deployment toward those goals.
In digital services and trust, indicators are moving quickly. Real-time payments over NIBSS rails reached about ₦1.07 quadrillion in 2024, underlining Nigeria’s continental lead in account-to-account usage. Data protection is governed by the Nigeria Data Protection Act (2023) under the NDPC, which has begun headline enforcement—useful context for platforms handling customer data.
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Norway boasts one of the world’s most reliable and widespread broadband services. High-speed internet is widely accessible, even in remote areas. This connectivity is a cornerstone of Norway’s digital economy, facilitating everything from e-commerce to remote working. The country is a hub for innovation, particularly in areas such as maritime technologies, energy, and ICT. Oslo, Norway’s capital, is often considered a hotspot for startups, particularly tech startups that benefit from robust government support and access to a highly skilled workforce.
Norway’s approach to internet governance is characterised by a high degree of regulation in favour of privacy and data protection. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), as adopted by Norway through the European Economic Area (EEA) agreement, is a key component of its regulatory framework.The government’s overall vision is that the internet needs to continue to be an open and free arena where everyone can freely give and receive information and where human rights are protected.
Norway actively participates in international dialogues on internet governance. Norwegian stakeholders are active participants in various internet governance forums and initiatives at the regional and global levels. Norwegian stakeholders also participate in the European Dialogue on Internet Governance (EuroDIG) events, which bring together stakeholders from the region to discuss digital policy-related issues and challenges. At the global level, Norwegian stakeholders participate in the Internet Governance Forum (IGF).
In June 2025, Norway will host the 20th Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in Lillestrøm, marking the forum’s 20th anniversary. This event will bring together over 4,000 participants from governments, civil society, academia, and the private sector to discuss the future of the internet. The overarching theme is ‘Building Digital Governance Together’.
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Pakistan’s digital policy stack is anchored by the Digital Pakistan Policy (2018), with cybersecurity and platform rules layered on top, and a new National Artificial Intelligence Policy 2025 now approved by the federal cabinet. Together, they set direction for skills, data, cloud adoption and sectoral digitisation, while signalling a push to scale AI use across government and industry.
Connectivity rests on multiple subsea cables landing at Karachi (AAE-1, IMEWE, SEA-ME-WE-4/5, TW1, PEACE), with Africa-1 newly landed in 2025 to add capacity and route diversity toward the Middle East, Africa and Europe. These international links feed national backbones and data centres, and help mitigate the impact of periodic regional cable faults.
Pakistan’s digital public infrastructure also includes a large biometric ID system and Asaan Mobile Account, which opened 10 million mobile accounts (≈40% women-owned), expanding inclusion. Notably, Pakistan is among the top global suppliers of online freelance talent: Oxford-linked research cited by Fairwork finds Pakistan has the third-largest population of professionals in global cloudwork—an area where the country ranks among the world’s leaders.
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