The Federal Government through the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) in collaboration with Four D Associates Limited and Kaduna State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) has concluded dispatcher training for emergency response agencies to mann the pilot Emergency Communication Centre situated in Kaduna.
The emergency response agencies including personnel of the Nigerian Army, Air Force, Police Force, Nigerian Security and Civil Defense Corps (NSCDC), Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Fire Service, National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and Kaduna State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) were trained to effectively handle different types of emergencies.
Speaking at the completion of the training, the head of projects department at the NCC, Bashir Idris explained that ECC is a federal government initiative to provide a central processing point for all with a toll free ‘112’ emergency calls. He noted that the centre would be officially commissioned next month.
According to him, Kaduna emergency centre specifically handles distress calls in the state; adding that it is a vital component of the State emergency services. “It is a federal government initiative that we cannot continue to have different numbers for emergency situations in the country. As we know, virtually all the security agencies have a numbers they reel out that people under emergency situation may not readily,”
“So, the FG thought it wise that Nigeria ought to have a three digit number and we resolve for ‘112’ to be our emergency code number. It is an easy to remember number and it is toll free to the caller. Once the number ‘112’ is called, the message will be transmitted to the relevant agency for quick and prompt response,” he explained; noting that the NCC has located communication facilities in each of the local government areas of the state for quick response.
He further mentioned that the Kaduna emergency call centre will serve as a training base for the North West region; he stressed that it will in no small measure help address emergency cases.
Also speaking, the Executive Secretary of SEMA, Ben Kure commended the FG for considering Kaduna State as a pilot state to kick start the Emergency Communication Centre; saying it would help clean the nation of all forms of atrocities. “Insurgent, kidnappers and other criminals will have no hiding place with the new code in place. The number can also be called in the case of an outbreak of a disease,”
He however urged the trainees to utilize the knowledge acquired in the discharge of their duties as required effectively.
Also speaking, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Four D Associates Limited, Okey Ikpe explained that his company provides the business process operations and managed services to ensure operational efficiency, sustainability of the program and excellence in service delivery.
The centre he said has call management and dispatch applications, routers, switches, state-of-the-art power stabilizers and un-interruptible power supply in addition to custom designed workstations for call centre agents, integrated with soft phones telephone and connected to command and control centers of the agencies. “All inbound calls are received, recorded and tracked to ensure accountability,” he added.
