CALABAR- The University of Cross River will be one of the beneficiaries of the renewed hope pet project of the First Lady, Oluremi Tinubu, with the construction of a Digital Economy Centre (DEC)
This was disclosed on Tuesday in Calabar by Mrs Victoria Feboke, Media Director, Office of the Wife of the Governor of Bayelsa and Project Director, Renewed Hope Initiative, targeted at youths across the nation.
According to her, the Renewed Hope Initiative is a Pet project of the First Lady with the Bayelsa Governor’s wife as the South-South Coordinator.
Feboke said the initiative aimed to collaborate with various agencies to set up an empowerment programme to reach out to the youth in the various states.
She said Calabar, as part of the South-South, had been chosen for an Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Centre and Unicross was chosen as where the centre would be situated.
“My visit here is to formally notify the management of the Institution that Unicross has been accepted for the deployment of the DEC to facilitate access to digital services.
“The centre would be furnished with computers, Internet connectivity, local area network, e-learning solutions, solar powered inverter, generator, printer, scanner and lots more to aid the trainees,” she said.
Responding, Mrs Eyoanwan Otu, wife of the governor, expressed optimism that the DEC intervention project when completed, would equip the less privileged youths in the state who desired to learn computer based skills.
Represented by her Special Adviser, Administration, Otu noted that the choice of Unicross was to ensure that the centre was sited in a place that would be beneficial to the state.
She said it was because of the trust and confidence they had in the achievements of the institution that made them comfortable with the choice of the university.
Prof. Augustine Angba, Vice Chancellor of Unicross, appreciated the team for considering the institution fit for the siting of the ICT Centre.
Agba recounted the challenges of the ICT Unit in the previous years, adding that the story would be changed.
“When I came in as Vice Chancellor about three years ago, the ICT Unit was quite sick, our Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) Centre was shut down for about three years.
“We came on board, struggling and the first year we came up, we were one of the best centres in Nigeria, irrespective of the infrastructure decay.
“The Higher Education Sub-Sahara ranking placed us at 7th position in Nigeria even though we are seen as a lesser university and vulnerable, it tells the speed in which we are growing,” he said.
He stated that considering the institution for the project was a testimony to the fact that the initiators of the DEC project were sharing out of their progress report.
The VC assured the team of the readiness of the institution to work with them to support the vision and release the best of their facilities for that purpose.
He added that education had gone beyond the classroom and ICT had become a thing of the day and every youth should follow the trend. (NAN)
