The Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC), Umar Garba Dambatta, has expressed his displeasure over the failure of key players in the telecommunication industry to leverage on research works produced by the academia in order to optimize service delivery to subscribers.
According to him, NCC perceived the academia as an important stakeholder in the value chain of telecommunication services in Nigeria, because of the high quality research works they produce to help address the challenges plaguing the sector.
He, however, lamented the failure of most telecom operators to translate those research findings into practice in order to leverage on them to ease channel congestion and to ensure optimum utilization of the networks in a way and manner that the quality of consumer experience will be improved upon
Dambatta stated this in Abuja while addressing journalists on the sidelines of the telecom stakeholders’ forum with the academia on Thursday.
He said: “I am comfortable with the quality of research work going on in the Nigerian university system.
“What I am not comfortable with is the translation of these research works into practice.
“Because one purpose of research is to ensure that the output us used in order to ensure that there is improvement in efficiency and productivity in the workplace.
“So, if we conduct a research and no effort is made to translate this research into practice, then these research works will just be there in the university gathering dust.
“But if we provide an interface between the universities and the various industries and agencies like the NCC, then that will present us with an opportunity that we can be able to translate research outcomes into practical application that will impact positively in the various sectors of the economy and on the quality of life and human experience.
“We need to go back and look at the 8-point agenda of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), and one of the important items is strategic collaboration and partnership with diverse stakeholders.
“We see the academia as an important stakeholder in the value chain. We think they are important because there are lots of research works that they can do in order to address the issue of congestion in telecommunications network.
“We want the academia to come in and conduct research that will ease channel congestion so as to ensure optimum utilization of the networks in a way and manner that the quality of consumer experience will be improved upon.”
He also said that “NCC is disposed to increasing the funding of research in its collaboration with the universities.”
Dambatta added that the NCC intervened in Nigeria’s university system to ensure that universities leverage the power of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in content delivery, research, and community development.
He said: “We intervene with various initiatives to provide fast data to make university lecturers capable of leveraging the power of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in content delivery as well as in the conduct of research.
“So we run advance digital application programme as part of NCC’s capacity building programme for lecturers and students.
“We provide connectivity between campuses and these are connectivity that can speak volume in terms of capacity.
“We are going to continue to intervene in the various sectors of the economy particularly within the Nigerian university system.
“And the NCC is poised to increase the level of these initiatives in order to ensure that universities leverage the power of ICTs in content delivery research and community development.”
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