Danbatta commended over NCC’s ICT Parks across Nigeria

Admin l Wednesday, July 07, 2021

 

 

ABUJA, Nigeria – Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Professor Umar Garba Danbatta has been commended for the creation of Information Communications Technology (ICT) Parks across the six geo-political zones in Nigeria.

Kano State Governor, Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje made the commendation when he visited the construction site of an ICT Park for the North-Western zone in Kano State.

According to the governor, the Danbatta-led NCC has ensured increased digital access to fast-track digital innovation across Nigeria and the North-West in particular, saying that the initiative will trigger socio-economic transformation of the area in no distant future.

“Realising that a major project that resonates with the global vision for the 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR) is being vigorously driven by NCC leadership, shows the kind of socio-economic transformation we should expect through ICT across Nigeria in the next few years.

“For the ICT Park being built here in Kano to serve the North-West zone, the government and citizens of Kano State are grateful to Prof. Danbatta and his team for bringing development to the state and the zone at large.”

Ganduge also commended the quality of the construction work undertaken by NCC on the ICT Park and expressed appreciation for the initiative.

An initiative of the Executive Vice-Chairman of the NCC, the ICT parks aim to provide Innovation Labs and Digital Fabrication Laboratories (Fablabs) for use by ICT innovators and entrepreneurs to turn their ideas into products and prototypes.

According to NCC, the Tier-4 Digital Industrial Complex (DIC) will provide a Commercial Hub for ICT capacity building and digital skills, create employment and entrepreneurial activities and facilitate smart city deployment across the Digital Industrial Complex.

The ICT Park under construction in Kano consists of laboratories for ICT innovations and Commercial Hubs, providing capacity building for ICT startups and entrepreneurial activities. The parks are designed to provide fast internet service (broadband) with constant supply of power.

Speaking on the ICT Parks, Prof Danbatta stated that the project was conceived and designed to support the federal government’s ICT-related policies and programmes by facilitating the availability and accessibility of ICT services across the country, promote their usage across all sectors and ultimately address youth unemployment in the country.

Designed to propel socio-economic transformation in the country, the EVC said the ICT Parks will help build capacity for the teeming population of Nigerian youths in the area of skill acquisition and innovation by complementing existing initiatives geared towards accelerating socio-economic transformation of Nigeria.

“The whole idea of putting these two things (i.e. skill acquisition and innovation) at the forefront of this very important initiative is to produce youths that can be self-reliant, generate employment for themselves and for other Nigerians.

“The NCC ICT Parks Project is another move by the current leadership of the Commission to boost youth digital skills acquisition, promote innovations, provide jobs for the teeming Nigerian youth and ultimately support the overall digital economy agenda of the Federal Government.

“We also hope to see innovative technologies that will leverage the broadband network, which the Commission is deepening in order to socially and economically transform our communities and societies”, Danbatta said.

He called on potential and would-be beneficiaries of the project, especially the youths, to be ready to leverage the initiative as it promises to empower them socially and economically.

“I would like to send out a very important message to our youths, especially those who are currently occupied with various innovative applications, those who have acquired the skills but are looking for where to put the skills to fruitful engagements, by incubating them, commercializing them, or giving publicity to these excellent initiatives, to be ready to leverage the facilities,” Danbatta added.

The ICT Park in Kano is expected to be completed and inaugurated this year.