NCC STRESSES THE IMPERATIVE OF ICT AT THE UNN CONVOCATION LECTURE
The Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigeria Telecommunications Commission (NCC), Professor Umar Garba Danbatta has reiterated the importance of Information Communication (ICT) as a vital tool for the improvement of content delivery and capacity in institutions of higher learning.
The NCC boss made this known when he delivered the 46th Convocation Lecture of the University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN).
With the world being driven by ICT the topic, “The Role of ICT Infrastructure on Tertiary Education in Nigeria, NCC Interventions” was chosen for the 46th convocation lecture of the university.
Discussing the topic, Professor Danbatta noted that the presence of ICT infrastructure in the nation’s tertiary institutions had led to the introduction of Nigeria research and education network, a unified information centre that enabled teachers and students to share knowledge across national and international boundaries.
Professor Danbatta boasted that NCC intervened in Nigerian universities through creation of enabling environment and provision of key ICT infrastructure that would not only promote education standard but also prepare the country for digital economy.
“NCC infrastructure intervention support projects in tertiary institutions in the country include access programme, productivity programme and ICT platforms.”
The Vice Chancellor, University of Nigeria Nsukka, Professor Benjamin Chukwuma Ozumba described the guest lecturer as appropriate and the topic apt, noting that the presentation was of great interest in the media.
“Professor Danbatta has brought series of interventions in Nigeria’s Communication industry. We are going to tap from his wealth of experience and probably learn much about satellite and channel broadcast.”
Earlier, the chairman of the occasion and President National industrial Court of Nigeria, Justice Babatunde Adeniran Adejumo expressed confidence that the lecture would be a further step to improving knowledge and human development in the field of education through the use of information and communications technology, ICT.
The thought provoking lecture generated questions and answers. During the question and answer session, a Professor of Science Education in the university, Uchenna Nzewi, expressed concern on the negative impact of ICT especially the visiting of pornography sites by some students to which the NCC boss said the commission was devising means of blocking such sites.
BY CHINWE CHUKWU