Until the academia translate their researched materials to life transforming practical applications, and improve the social and economic well-being of society, such researches will not make any impact.
These were the submissions of the Executive Vice Chairman (EVC) of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta.
These researches, if properly channeled, will improve quality of services in the various sectors of the economy.
Speaking recently in Abuja at a stakeholders forum with the academia while presenting a paper titled: “The Place of the Academia in the Telecoms Ecosystem”, the NCC boss called on the academia to meet up expectations by channeling their expertise into practical reality as well as 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.
Danbatta said the es¬sence of research work is to ensure that the out¬put improves efficiency and productivity in the work place, adding that it is the responsibility of the academia to re¬claim it’s expected role by ensuring that the research activities of its members enhance the market to the needs of the consumer as a lot of positives is attached to a market that has defied global economic unpre¬dictability to deliver consistent market growth from $50m in 2001 to over $86bn currently through the contributions of ICT.
He encouraged them not just to publish re¬search results in special journals which may be read but to face the re¬ality on the street and search for solutions that can enhance life and business. According to him the Nigerian Communications Act of 2003 mandates the Commission to promote effective research and development efforts by all communication industry partners, thus the Commission has intervened by ensuring a knowledge based economy by facilitating new models of teaching thus deepening ICT adoption and use to drive knowledge acquisition in institutions.
Danbatta said the Commission has intervened through physical infrastructures, hardware, software classroom pedagogy as well as provision of bandwidth to facilitate broadband availability adding that NCC is poised to consolidate it’s collaboration with the academia by providing research grants for approved research works.
Danbatta told his colleagues that: “I am privileged to be heading the regulatory body of an industry which is working very well in spite of perceived foibles. And take it from me; we are the first to admit all these weaknesses – unacceptable quality of service, unsolicited messages, drop calls and a host of other issues prompting the Commission to declare 2017 as The Year of the Nigerian Telecom Consumer, the year that the Consumer will occupy the centerpiece of our operations and be given special attention both in the provision of information by way of education, and also providing solutions to the myriad of problems appertaining service delivery by the operators. Let me now appeal that we also take a look at the very positive side of the industry.”
According to Danbatta, “from my vantage position, I can say that for every foible there is more than enough good or benefit to compensate for it; a lot of positives attached to a market that has defied global economic unpredictability to deliver consistent market growth; from just $500m in year 2000 to over $86bn in investment as we speak, and the fortunes continue to rise as ICT is taking commanding control over human endeavor. At over 154m subscribers the market size demands special attention from the various stakeholders to ensure a balance of interest that will continue to sustain the market and provide services that will transform human daily endeavor.”
In explaining his stand point, Danbatta referred to “My 8-Point Agenda, namely: Facilitate Broadband Penetration; Improve Quality of Service; Optimize Usage and Benefits of Spectrum; Promote ICT Innovation and Investment Opportunities; Facilitate Strategic Collaboration and Partnership; Protect and Empower Consumers; Promote Fair Competition and Inclusive Growth; and Ensure Regulatory Excellence and Operational Efficiency has been spoken about and well discussed at local and international fora, as well as being given a major boost and push in the media. The agenda is driven by the need to make the industry more responsive to the demands of the consumers while encouraging the operators to commit more to the market by way of investment. With the Nigerian Communications Act 2003, the agenda provides us a compass to navigate the affairs of the industry and we have tried to adhere to this strictly in furthering development and creating a new vision for the industry.”
According to him: “Prominent in the agenda is: Facilitate Strategic Collaboration and Partnership. This is the nexus I am try to establish, that this meeting is not a happenstance but clearly orchestrated in many respect both by the Act and the NCC Management through the 8-point Agenda, which believes 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.”
Strangely, he said: “there seems to be some kind of esoteric remoteness about Academia which insulates them from life on the street or the daily expectations of the ordinary man. 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 that since the economic resurgence in the telecoms sector, the Commission has been on the right track in its relationship with the Academia. While the ITU membership for Academia was enabled under Resolution 169 (Guadalajara, 2010) on Admission of academia, universities and their associated research establishments to participate in ITU’s work”, which activities include: the Telecommunications Standardization Sector (ITU-T), the Telecommunication Development Sector (ITU-D), and the Radio communication Sector (ITU-R); the Nigerian Communications Act which dates back to 2003 mandates the Commission, among others, to encourage the development of communications manufacturing and supply sector within the Nigerian economy and also to promote effective research and development efforts by all communications industry partners. “To this end, ladies and gentlemen, the Nigerian Academia are revered partners in this relationship and I will state the advantages later on in this paper.”
Danbatta explained that a major challenge for developing countries is in preparing the citizenry for the knowledge economy; a world where technology dominates and activates every aspect of life; from peace to warfare, from education to health, from private life style to global relationship where strangers are able to relate every minute and even discuss work activities besides sharing personal secrets, universal education acquisition and intellectual and research relationships, to even the more complex ones like aero dynamics and artificial intelligence; the world is on a swing, propelled by technology; those who live outside of that ecosystem will be trapped in the legacies of the past.
NCC’s response as a government agency has been to focus on a critical mass of the society domiciled in institutions of learning across the country. “We have always entertained the need to bridge the digital divide in a very positive way by affecting lives in these institutions through the facilitation of new models of teaching and learning and in the process create a new workforce that will be very functional in the digital economy. I am happy to announce that over the years the Commission, through its various projects like the Advanced Digital Awareness Programme for Tertiary Institutions (ADAPTI), Digital Awareness Programme (DAP) for institutions, University Inter Campus Connectivity (UNICC) and Tertiary Institutions Knowledge Centre (TIKC); implemented by the Digital Bridge Institute and the Universal Service Provision Fund, is deepening ICT adoption and use, that drives knowledge acquisition opportunities in our institutions.”
Among others, the intervention packages are designed to achieve the following:
• Provide conducive environment and necessary facilities for ICT education.
• Develop ICT skills among Nigerians through capacity building of staff of Nigerian Tertiary Institutions.
• Create a seamless connection between the Universities and their Medical Colleges and teaching Hospitals and facilitate bi-directional communication for the purpose of sharing resources.
• Create a backbone for delivery of other projects such as e-health.
• Facilitate a digital lifestyle in the institutions and enhance teaching and research works in our higher institutions.
• Create and sustain ICT professional development in Nigerian Tertiary institutions and consequently create ICT proficient graduates and workforce.
• Create framework for maximum utility of ICT and thereby reposition the Nigerian economy.
• Introduce participants to software that can be of immediate relevance and use to them.
• Tackle computer phobia often observed among some staff of tertiary institutions
• Improve the global competitiveness and ranking of Nigeria’s tertiary institutions by adoption and usage of ICT tools.
These interventions may come in form of physical infrastructure, hardware, software, classroom pedagogy or provision of bandwidth to facilitate broadband availability in the user environment; the ultimate aim is to build knowledge in the population that can potentially become the engine of growth in our nation. On a last count the modest effort of the Commission has yielded the following results: computer hardware supply to over two thousand institutions, among them several universities and teaching hospitals and colleges, training of 38, 136 teaching and non-teaching staff in our tertiary institutions (with 2016, my first full year at the Commission, presenting the highest of such figures – 11,393), 454.9km of fibre optic deployment to 24 Universities, 11 institutions have benefitted from the UnICC End-User (electronics), and several other institutions have also benefitted from the TIKC project.
Part of the Act which sets up the Universal Service Provision Fund particularly challenges us to “promote the widespread availability and usage of network services and applications throughout Nigeria by encouraging the installation of network facilities and the provision of network services and applications to institutions and in un-served, under-served areas or for under-served groups within the country.” The intervention of the Fund in the education sector derives from its legitimacy from the Act definition of institutions that should be provided network services and applications. The Commission has an abiding commitment to continuing in this direction, consistent with the NCA 2003, Danbatta submitted.
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