Billions of dollars need to be spent if Facebook is to succeed in its goal of connecting all people in the world to the internet, says Nigeria's ICT minister Omobola Johnson.

Johnson, who is on a tour of Silicon Valley in the US, made these comments in a Bloomberg Television interview on Monday.

Earlier this year, Facebook chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg launched Internet.org, a global partnership seeking to connect two thirds of the world’s population that doesn’t have internet access. Internet.org plans to achieve this goal within a five year period.

Partners to Internet.org include handset makers Nokia, Samsung and Ericcson. Web browser company Opera and network infrastructure manufacturers Qualcomm and MediaTek also form part of the partnership.

But Johnson told Bloomberg Television that heavy investment is required if Internet.org is to succeed.

“I think that if he (Zuckerberg) says that, then we believe there is a big investment that is required,” Omobola said.

“Now, we have spent about $25 billion and we have only 6% broadband penetration.

“So, if we’re going to get everybody connected, we’re talking about billions of dollars that needs to be invested in infrastructure before we talk about access,” Omobola added.

When the Bloomberg interviewer asked Omobola whether she thought the five-year target is achievable, Omobola replied: “I think if we have the funds, it is possible in 5 years: it is, but we’ve got to have the funds to do that.”

Omobola further told Bloomberg that she has met with Facebook to discuss Internet.org.

Talking generally about Nigeria’s technology landscape in the interview, Omobola added that the West African nation’s IT industry has been “growing at about 20% year-on-year for the last five years.”

The minister added that 45 million Nigerians access the internet daily in a country where there are over 100 million mobile phone connections.

A key to bringing internet access to all of Nigeria’s 170 million people, though, exists with regard to affordability, explained Omobola in the interview.

“First of all we’re looking at connectivity of the country and then affordability,” said Omobola.

“We can get internet to everybody. But when you’re looking at a country where 70% of the population is rural, a lot of them don’t have significant earning capacity.

“What is important for us is getting that internet to be affordable,” Omobola added.

Omobola said that internet prices need to come down to 5% of income for it to be affordable in Nigeria.