NCC Reaffirms Promise to Fund Academic Research

By Tolulope Oke

Prof. Adeolu Akande, chairman of the board of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), has reiterated the commission’s commitment to investing more money in research and prototypes as a consequence of funding provided by the commission to academic institutions.

Akande told a gathering of Vice Chancellors and professors from universities in the southern parts of the country at a conference held in Sheraton Hotel, Ikeja, that the Commission would continue to acknowledge the importance of working with stakeholders to engender innovations and build indigenous technological capabilities that would strengthen the ICT ecosystem.

Akande explained that the essence of the conference is to dialogue with the academia, industry and other stakeholders on how research efforts and prottotypes can be transformed into commercially viable products that solve real-life problems.

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“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,” he said.

The Director of Legal and Regulatory Services of the Commission, Josphine Amuwa, spoke on behalf of Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta, Executive Vice Chairman of the NCC, who stated that academics remained a major force behind innovation in all fields of human endeavor.

He claimed that this is the reason why his leadership at the Commission is determined to support the commercialization of these prototypes in order to strengthen domestic technological capabilities, which would support the overall growth of the industry, in addition to providing grants to academic institutions.