NCC Panel recommends establishment of soft development centres across Nigeria

The Seven-man panel of experts on the design of appropriate curriculum/blueprint for ICT research programmes in Nigeria has recommended the establishment of software development centres across the country.
The chairman of the Panel, Engr Ernest Ndukwe, who spoke before the submission of final report at the NCC headquarters, Abuja, at the weekend, said the main thrust of the strategy for achieving the articulated vision in the report is the creation and development of ICT hubs and innovations centres at specified locations across the country.
‘’It is proposed that these hubs and innovation centres would be primarily devoted to software development and engineering’’, Engr Ndukwe said.
He said the Panel also recommended that small proportion of the Annual Operating Levy (AOL) be permanently earmarked for operations of the Digital Bridge Institute.
‘’In this way, DBI will not only be sustainable but will able to take on added responsibilities demanded of it in implementing the Recommendations Report. For example, it has been proposed that the DBI centre in Kano and the idle DBI centres in Yola, Enugu and Asaba are converted to become operational as ICT innovation hubs’’, he said.
The funding mechanism proposed, he said, would guarantee that DBI is able to sustain the operations of the ICT hubs and innovations centres and achieve the objective for which they are set up.
Earlier, the NCC Board Chairman, Senator Olabiyi Durojaiye said the commission was desirous of refocusing the DBI to actualise its mandate in accordance with the ideals of its founding fathers.
Other members of the Panel included: Engr Titi Omo-Ettu, Prof Mohammed Ajiyya, Alhaji Abdullahi Maikano, Dr Ike Adinde, Engr Johnson Asinugwo and Mr Shehu Olaniyan.