A Veterinary Science student of the University of Ilorin, Ms. Esther Oluwabukola Gbeja, has emerged winner of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), National Essay Competition on Fifth Generation (5G) Technology.
The competition with the topic: “5G Technology: “Opportunities and Challenges” received over 1,820 submissions from students in over 97 higher institutions of which four were picked.
At the award ceremony in Abuja, Abdulkarim Nasiru of the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) Ile-Ife in Osun and MarcPatrick Efeni of the Airforce Institute of Technology, Kaduna got N200,000 each, for coming 3rd; while Nosa Moses Edosa of the University of Port Harcourt, got N300,000 for 2nd position and Esther Gbeja, got N500,000 for the 1st position.
The Executive Vice-Chairman (EVC) of the NCC, Prof. Umar Danbatta, said the commission was doing much to empower the youth in Nigeria, and the essay competition was one of their efforts.
Speaking on the 5G deployment, he said that the Federal Government would gain N75bn from its spectrum auctioning in coming months.
Danbatta said that the auction was software-based, and that provision had been made for manual auction should the auction software fail during the process.
Ms. Esther Gbeja, who spoke on behalf of other participants of the competition, commended the NCC and urged Nigerians to understand efforts of the Federal Government on the 5G technology.
Chairman of the Essay Competition Committee, Mr Edoyemi Ogoh, said the committee was guided by the commission’s guiding principles of being fair and upright in following the criteria to determine the winners.