Nahimah Ajikanle Nurudeen
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has stressed the need for government institutions in the country to key into Information and Communication Technology (ICT) revolution.
This according to the Executive Vice Chairman of the Commission, Prof. Umar Danbatta would make Nigeria fully unlock ICT potentials.
Danbatta who spoke during the 8th Edition of Beacon of Information and Communication Technology (BoICT) Lecture and Awards in Lagos said said that the ICT revolution had no barriers or frontiers.
The EVC represented by Mr Sunday Dare, executive commissioner, Stakeholders Management, NCC, said, “Nigeria, though already plugged into the ICT ecosystem, is yet to harvest fully the dividends of the ICT revolution sweeping across the world. While our youth have fully embraced ICT, our government, institutions both public and private are still in the process of adopting ICT in their operations and activities. Yet, the future lies in ICT.”
He said Nigeria must make deliberate policies that will accelerate ICT penetration.
“Our educational curricula must integrate ICT at all levels of education and our systems and institutions must be brought into compliance by training and re-training our people,” Danbatta said.
He said though, government had made some commendable strides in adopting ICT in various aspects of its operations, more systematic and accelerated approach was still needed.
Danbatta said ICT had become a one-stop shop for modern tools of development, innovation, employment opportunities and for a smarter world.
He said that as the world moved towards the Fifth Generation (5G) revolution and the Internet of Things (IoT), Nigeria must embrace fully the opportunities offered by the ICT.
He said Nigeria’s ICT initiatives must focus on cyber crimes, cyber security, indigenous software development, digital multimedia platforms, amongst others.
