NDDC TO BOOST INTERNET ACCESS IN NIGER DELTA WITH FIBRE OPTIC CABLES

PORT HARCOURT, Rivers, Nigeria – The Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, says it will boost digital learning by linking the entire Niger Delta region with fiber optics to facilitate internet penetration and spread.

The Chairman of the NDDC Governing Board, Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba, SAN, said this when members of the Governing Council and Management of the Cross River State College of Education, Akamkpa, paid him a courtesy visit at the Commission’s headquarters in Port Harcourt.

Ndoma-Egba said that the Commission was making efforts to create a new environment that would bring the Niger Delta in line with the digital age. “We will challenge the creativity of our young men and women and we will also help our tertiary institutions to key into the modern ways of learning,” he said.

According to the NDDC Chairman, “the world has gone digital and learning is now electronic-based.” He observed: “If we don’t train for the new world, we will be left behind. So everything is technology-based now and we want to leave a landmark contribution at the end of our tenure. We want to link the entire Niger Delta region with fiber optics that will enhance widespread internet usage.”

Senator Ndoma-Egba said that he and the NDDC Managing Director, Mr Nsima Ekere, recently visited São Tomé and Principe to discuss with the country’s Prime Minister on the possibility of benefiting from their own excess internet capacity. He noted that the discussions were very positive.

He assured the team from the College of Education Akamkpa, that they and other tertiary institutions in the region would benefit from the proposed high-speed internet network.

The NDDC Chairman advised: “I want to urge you to look in a new direction of education, which is technology-based and driven by e-learning. That is where the future is anchored. I don’t want you to train people for the world that has passed. Let us train people for today’s world.”

He promised: “I want to assure you that we will make sure that all your needs are looked into. We will attend to your requests sympathetically and urgently.”

Senator Ndoma-Egba maintained that education, being one of the core mandates of NDDC, would always be given utmost attention. “We have been intervening in tertiary institutions but I don’t think we have intervened in the College of Education, Akamkpa,” he remarked.

Earlier in his remarks, the Chairman of the Governing Council of the Cross River State College of Education, Dr Steve Ada, said that the college had received the necessary approvals to become a degree-awarding institution.
He told the NDDC Chairman that the Governing Council of the college had ensured that all its 23 academic programmes received full accreditation.

In his own speech, the Acting Provost of the College, Dr Obere Abiam, appealed to the NDDC to intervene in providing key infrastructural projects for the school. He said that the college needed urgent assistance to ensure it fulfilled its vision and mission of producing professional and competent teachers in arts, science and technology.

Abiam said that the need for help was more urgent now that the college was transiting to a degree status in 2017/2018 academic session.