THE Nigerian Communications Commission has said that its N51billion Information and Communication Technology training institute in Lagos will begin operations last quarter of 2013.
The training centre is under the supervision of the Digital Bridge Institute (DBI), the e-training arm of the NCC.
The multi-million Naira project, whi
The Director, Public Affairs, NCC, Mr. Tony Ojobo, who reiterated the commitment of the Commission to have the project completed and functional next year during the visit of the House Committee on Communication to the project sight on Monday, said the centre would help the country in bridging the digital divide in the area of knowledge acquisition in the sector.
According to him, the project was part of measures to build continuous requisite capacity to meet the demand of knowledge required to manage the increasingly advanced technologies in the nation’s telecoms and IT sectors.
“There has been a commitment on the part of the NCC to see that this project through and what you have seen here is a reflection the determination of the Commission to get this project completed. We don’t have abandoned project in the Commission. Any money that is appropriated for a project is utilised well at the NCC,” he said.
Ojobo noted that DBI is very strategy in NCC in creating a knowledge base economy, and in building the human capacity required to develop the sector.
“This is going to be a high-class institution that can compete with any other IT training institutions around the world because we were in partnership with foreign world-renowned institutions to ensure current and right knowledge is build to support the industry.”
He added that NCC would also have learning centres in all the six geo-political zones in the country, so as to make it easier for people to have access to the training without necessarily traveling to Lagos or Abuja to attend training courses.
Earlier in an interview with journalists after the project inspection, the House Committee Chairman, on Communications, Hon Tunji Ojo, said: “We are impressed by the level of work that has been done here. Our coming here is part of our oversight function to see that money appropriated for any project is used to executive the targeted projects for the benefit of tax payers.”
He noted that when completed, the that DBI Lagos training centre would help in building capacity among Nigerians, stressing that “having the right capacity in terms of personnel with requisite knowledge is critical in today’s knowledge economy to support a nation’s competitiveness both locally and in the global economy being driven by ICT.”
According to him, Nigeria cannot in the 21st century play second fiddle in ICT development, stressing that the country has witnessed tremendous growth in technology development and such should be leverage upon for total digital transformation.
Source: ngrguardiannews.com