By Felix Ugboja
ABUJA (Sundiata Post) – The Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) has called on Nigerian tertiary institutions to engage in more research in Information Communication Technology (ICT) in order for the country to fully grapple with the growing competition and advancement in the industry.
The Commission made this call on Thursday when it held a stakeholders’ consultative forum with the academia themed ‘The Place of Academia in the Telecoms Ecosystem.’
The event held at Transcorp Hilton hotel, Abuja, and was chaired by the Executive Vice Chairman of the Commission, Prof Umar Garba Danbatta. In attendance were prominent professors and doctors from top tertiary institutions in Nigeria.
While delivering his presentation, Prof Danbatta stated that one of the prominent goals in his 8-point agenda is to Facilitate Strategic Collaboration and Partnership.
He said that ‘’the industry should begin to benefit from the various levels of relationships beginning from the profuse knowledge resident in the Academia. Long ago the act established a link between the industry and the Academia and it is our responsibility to activate that link and unleash its benefits.’’
He further stated that the wrong perception of people is that the academia is detached from society.
‘’I am of the strong opinion that the academia is not living to our expectation when its expertise is not wired into the experience of the kind of market we are speaking about. My expectation is that the academia should be at the vanguard of translating the difficulty and technicality of technology to suit the needs and daily applications of those who use them, thereby making life easy for society’’, he said.
According to Danbatta, the Commission on its part has since the economic resurgence of the telecoms sector, struck a good relationship with the academia to achieve this goal. The commission’s act, according to Danbatta, which dates back to 2003, encourages the development of communications manufacturing and to also promote effective research and development efforts by all communications industry partners like the academia.
‘’It is the responsibility of the academia therefore, to reclaim its expected role by ensuring that the research activitis of its members will enhance and reorient the market to the needs of the consumers and in the process profit from the sector through these efforts. So, while being encouraged to publish research results in special journals which the man on the street or the politician may never read, the academia must attune itself to the reality on the street and search for solutions that can enhance life and businesses,” he added.
Danbatta also mentioned that the commission is already sponsoring a number of research projects in the academia and it is open to doing more.[feed number=”1″ ]