*The Nigerian Communications Commission urges the Nasarawa State Scholarship Board to promote awareness of the Commission’s initiatives among stakeholders in the academia, especially for scholars interested in doing telecoms-based research

Gbenga Kayode | ConsumerConnect

In advancing the frontiers of knowledge-based economy in the country, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has appealed to the Nasarawa State Scholarship Board (NSSB) to support the NCC in creating awareness about the intervention projects of the Commission concerning research and digital literacy, to provide more opportunities for the citizenry.

Dr. Augustine Nwaulune, Director of Digital Economy at NCC, stated this when he hosted a delegation of NSSB, led by Hajia Saadatu Yahya, Executive Secretary of the Board, on behalf of Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta,  Executive Vice-Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (EVC/CEO) of the Commission, in Abuja, FCT, recently.

Dr. Nwaulune recalled that Nasarawa State is one of the beneficiaries of NCC’s Information and Communication Technology (ICT) intervention projects such as the Digital Awareness Programme (DAP) for secondary schools, the Advanced Digital Appreciation Programme for Tertiary Institutions (ADAPTI), the Wireless Cloud, as well as the E-Health programme.

Mr. Reuben Muoka, Director of Public Affairs at NCC, noted the Director of Digital Economy said: “While we don’t give scholarship to students, the NCC has continued to give research grants to lecturers and students in the universities, and provided additional opportunities including sponsoring competitions involving students, as well as endowing professorial chairs in universities across the country.

“In the last seven years, the financial value of the endowments and grants is more than N500 million.”

Nwaulune stated: “Therefore, I will appeal to NSSB to create awareness about these initiatives of the NCC among stakeholders in the academia, particularly the research grants to enable stakeholders to leverage such opportunities offered by the Commission to scholars interested in carrying out telecommunications-based research.”

The NCC, the Director of Digital Economy further said, has been upbeat in ensuring implementation of the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS), 2020-2030.

According to him, one of eight pillars of NDEPS rests on digital literacy, as the Digital Economy Department has been set up and equipped with the human resources required at NCC, to coordinate its programmes in concrete terms.

Hajia Yahya, whose delegation visited the telecoms sector regulatory Commission to discuss areas of collaboration for deepening digital/technical training and skills acquisition in Nasarawa State, commended the Commission for the central role it has played in promoting digital awareness and skills across the country.

She, however, pleaded with the NCC, that Nasarawa State should be given more opportunities to benefit from the regulator’s social investments and other digital economy-focused interventions, being the closest state to the Federal Capital Territory, the base of the Commission.

Yahya also stated: “The purpose of our visit is to seek collaboration with the NCC in whatever ways possible, especially in the areas of scholarship, and ICT skills and literacy for our people.

“The ICT is, today, the engine room of global economy, and we do not want to lag in this new digital order.

“Hence, our decision to seek collaboration with organisations in the ICT space such as yours to work which, especially because you are contiguous to our state.”

The Commission added the other members of the NSSB delegation, including Senior Special Assistant to Nasarawa State Governor on Information and Communication Technology, Haruna Sani; and the President, Nasarawa State Students Association, Sani Jibrin, spoke in favour of a greater collaboration with the NCC.

They noted this would add the needed impetus to the current efforts of the Nasarawa State Government to leverage ICT for economic development in the state.