In a bid to drive technology development in Nigeria, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has decided to commit over N500 million to universities and other tertiary institutions across Nigeria.
Disclosing this at a two-day Regional Roundtable with Academia, Industry and Other Stakeholders, the Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission, Prof. Umar Danbatta, said the fund will facilitate research and innovations, which will ultimately, promote developments in the Nigerian telecommunications industry.
“Over N500 million funds have been committed to research grants to universities and tertiary institutions, including professorial chairs in the universities in salient areas to drive technology development,” he said.
Having given out the fund, Danbatta said the Commission is now focused on supporting the academia in the commercialisation of the prototypes from these innovative researches as this is relevant to the Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy’s policy towards achieving indigenous technology for sustainable development of Nigeria.
“The Commission collaborates with the Academia in maximising the contributions of tertiary institutions to innovations and sustainable development of the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) industry as finance is needed to drive the possible success of these endeavours, ” he added.
Danbatta said these efforts have enabled the Commission to contribute to national efforts to ensure overall growth of the industry and create wealth for innovators, saying all these are fundamental to the objective of the NCC’s R&D-oriented programmes.