Admin l Sunday, September 06, 2020
ABUJA, Nigeria – Working from home has evolved as a new normal made possible by the Information Communication Technology(ICT), Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Nigerian Telecommunications Commission (NCC), Professor Umar Garba Danbatta has said.
Danbatta, who was speakingat the presentation of grants to three winners of the Digital Solution to COVID-19 pandemic, said the ICT has taken the central stage in the provision and advancement of solution to the pandemic.
The top three winners of the Virtual Hackathon are Elizade University Team, Primed E-Health Solutions and Cyberfleet. The Elizade University Team’s tech solution is an Automated Temperature Scanner (ATS), a device designed to conduct automatic temperature screening and contact tracing of persons with body temperature above the normal level for human beings.
Primed E-Health developed a mobile and web solution called SmartClinic, which can link a patient-based mobile health app with a hospital-based information management system while ‘KlassConnect’ by Cyberfleet is an online platform that can be deployed by schools to continue with teaching and learning activities regardless of any health challenges that may prevent face-to-face physical interactions.
The EVC noted that the quest by the International Finance Corporation, IFC, to appraise the impact or role that telecommunications/ICTs plays in addressing COVID-19 pandemic noted that more than any other event in human history, the critical importance that telecommunications infrastructure plays in keeping businesses, governments, and societies connected and running with the economic and social disruptions caused by the pandemic have made people across the globe to rely on technology for information, for social distancing, and working from home.
The NCC boss said innovations in telecommunications has to a large extent, provided the best link for humanity to share available solutions in navigating the challenges of the pandemic.
“This may be the reason why the number of uptakes in different types of telecommunications services has continued to rise in spite of lockdowns and restrictions occasioned by the pandemic. The number of active subscribers in Nigeria has continued to rise as the figures of the last eight months show increases from 184 Million in December 2019 to 199.3 Million in May 2020. Internet subscriptions in the same period has grown from 126 Million subscribers to 147.1 Million, while broadband subscription has improved from 72 Million to 80.2 million, achieving a 42.02% penetration in the country. These may have given impetus to the possibility of holding virtual meetings and conferences on video technologies that are now providing social distancing solutions”.
He asserted that telecommunications has much more greater role to play than many other sectors of economy and the society and that the challenge to find a way to accentuate local content solution remains a blessing.
