Chairman of the Board of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Prof. Adeolu Akande, has restated the commitment of the Commission to commit more funds to research and prototypes resulting from grants to the academia.
This is coming at the backdrop of the recent revelation that the NCC has committed more than N500 Million in funding research across the Nigerian universities.
A press statement by the Director Public Affairs of the NCC, Reuben Muoka, Wednesday, quotedProfessor Akande as telling a gathering of Vice Chancellors and professors from universities in the southern parts of the country at a roundtable conference at the Sheraton Hotel, Ikeja, Lagos, that the Commission acknowledges the importance of working with stakeholders to engender innovations and build indigenous technological capabilities that would strengthen the ICT ecosystem.
“We want to use this opportunity to assure you that the Commission will continue to give support to the educational sector in the interest of national development. We will also continue to encourage research and innovation in Nigeria’s tertiary institutions,” Akande said, explaining that the essence of the roundtable was to dialogue with the academia, industry and other stakeholders on how research efforts and prototypes can be transformed into commercially viable products that solve real-life problems.
“Consequently, the Commission will continue to allocate the requisite resources to research, development and innovations necessary for the industry to continue to contribute to the socio-economic development of the country,” Akande said.
Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta, represented by the Director, Legal and Regulatory Services of the Commission, Josphine Amuwa, said academia is a key driver of innovation in all spheres of human endeavours.