By Olajide Meseko
The Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) said it has awarded 13 universities N172,532,040 for Information and Communication Technology (ICT) focused research innovations.
The Commission said it has so far spent N660m on Nigerian tertiary institutions for ICT related research.
The Executive Vice Chancellor of the Commission revealed this on Thursday at the award of research grants to winners of the 2021 Telecommunications-based research proposals helf in Abuja.
Also at the event was the endowment of N60m to three professorial chairs in tertiary institutions to promote innovations in tertiary institutions.
Danbatta said, “The endowment of professorial chairs in universities is one of the commissioner’s initiatives in supporting academia in focused research in ICT, towards the advancement of technologies.
“The objective is to ensure regulatory and technological solutions capable of improving the communications industry. It is, therefore, our expectation that institutions would dedicate the required human and material resources to the success of the programmes.”
Some of the beneficiaries announced were the University of Port Harcourt, Usmanu Danfodiyo University Sokoto, Federal University of Technology Imo State, and the Federal University of Agriculture Abeokuta.
He added, “The implementation of the endowment is through a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), signed between the Commission and each benefiting institution. We have also included the signing of MoU as part of the implementation of the Telecommunication-based Research Innovations from Nigerian tertiary institution programme.
“With these awards and endowments, the Commission would have provided more than N660m to Nigerian tertiary institutions for Information and Communication Technology (ICT) focused research innovations.
“These are part of the Commission’s efforts at vigorously driving the attainment of the goal of the Federal Government’s agenda on digital economy, as aptly captured in the National Digital Policy and Strategy (2020 – 2030).”
