The Governor of Kano State, Dr. Abdullahi Ganduje has hailed the Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), for championing the building of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) parks across the six-geo political zones of the country.
Ganduje, who visited the site of one of the ICT Parks in Kano, which is still under construction, noted that the effort of the Danbatta-led NCC in building the ICT parks will fast-track digital innovation across Nigeria and the North-West in particular and ultimately, trigger the socio-economic transformation of Nigeria.
“On behalf of the government and people of Kano State, I want to commend the effort of NCC, led by our owned son, Prof. Umar Danbatta. The ICT Parks being built will resonate with the global vision for the 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR). These are the kind of socio-economic transformation we should expect through ICT across Nigeria in the next few years,” he said.
The Nigerian Commission Communications has embarked on building the ICT Parks across the country to provide Innovation Labs and Digital Fabrication Laboratories (Fablabs) for use by ICT innovators and entrepreneurs, which will turn their ideas into products and prototypes.
The Parks will provide a Commercial Hub for ICT capacity building and digital skills, create employment and entrepreneurial activities and facilitate smart city deployment.
A check on some of the ICT Park indicates that there are laboratories for ICT innovations and Commercial Hubs providing capacity building to ICT startups and entrepreneurial activities.
The parks are designed to provide fast internet service (broadband) and a constant power supply.
Meanwhile, the EVC of NCC, Prof. Umar Danbatta has given insights into why the parks are being built.
According to him, 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.
“These 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 the socio-economic transformation of Nigeria,” he said.