NCC Seeks Swedish Collaboration On ICT Capacity Building

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) wants to partner with Sweden for building capacity in ICT.

Senior Officer, Public Affairs Department, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Hamzat Shuni; Principal manager, Special Duties, NCC, Ibrahim Galadima; Chief of Staff to the Executive Vice Chairman (EVC), NCC, Usman Malah; Swedish Ambassador to Economic Community of West Africa (ECOWAS) - Ghana, Cameroon and Nigeria, Mr. Carl Grans; EVC/CEO, NCC, Prof Umar Danbatta; Director, Government and Industry Relations, Ericsson, Mr. Peter Ogundele; Deputy Director, Special Duties, NCC, Mr. Chukwuma Azikiwe; and Assistant Director, Special Duties, NCC, Mr. Babagana Digima during the visit of the Swedish Ambassador to the Commission / Photo credit: NCC
Senior Officer, Public Affairs Department, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Hamzat Shuni; Principal manager, Special Duties, NCC, Ibrahim Galadima; Chief of Staff to the Executive Vice Chairman (EVC), NCC, Usman Malah; Swedish Ambassador to Economic Community of West Africa (ECOWAS) - Ghana, Cameroon and Nigeria, Mr. Carl Grans; EVC/CEO, NCC, Prof Umar Danbatta; Director, Government and Industry Relations, Ericsson, Mr. Peter Ogundele; Deputy Director, Special Duties, NCC, Mr. Chukwuma Azikiwe; and Assistant Director, Special Duties, NCC, Mr. Babagana Digima during the visit of the Swedish Ambassador to the Commission / Photo credit: NCC

The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), has asked for collaboration with Sweden in building capacity in the area of Information and Communication Technology.

Particularly, NCC wants to key into a Swedish programme designed to build capacity in emerging markets.

The commission’s Executive Vice Chairman, Professor Umar Danbatta on Thursday January 9, 2020 hosted the Swedish Ambassador to ECOWAS, Ghana, Cameroon and Nigeria, Mr. Carl Grans and held discussions centering on how the country could enhance ICT capacity development and broadband penetration in Nigeria.

Part of the Commission’s stated eight-Point Agenda, one of the pillars of which focuses on Strategic Collaborations and Partnership towards accelerating digital access and skills development.

Danbatta said the meeting was at the instance of the Commission, based on the Commission’s assessment of the offer for capacity development and focus of the Swedish Programme for ICT Development in Emerging Regions (SPIDER), a dedicated programme instituted to provide capacity building in emerging markets.

He said that the Swedish Post and Telecom Authority (PTS) had earlier trained some Nigerians.

Thus, Danbatta stated that further collaboration to build capabilities of Nigerians on ICT would increase human resources and capacity in the ICT sector towards deepening broadband penetration.

Danbatta said further capacity building of Nigerians on ICT tools and skills would start with agencies in the Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy (FMoCDE) in the context of train-the-trainer arrangement, and the beneficiaries in the agencies will proceed to train other Nigerians.

He thanked the Swedish government for the capacity building programmes and reiterated that one of the priorities of the Nigerian government is to facilitate the migration of millions of Nigerians out of poverty traps through ICT capacity development, skill impartation and effectively driving the digital economy processes.

“We hope that the Embassy will continue to facilitate this kind of intervention to NCC and other agencies of government in Nigeria and Africa, and we also hope to benefit from the wealth of experience especially of Sweden, being a leading broadband market,” the EVC said.

Responding to the EVC, Ambassador Carl Michael Grans said that “5G technology and Internet of Things (IoT) were crucial to transforming the industry and production in a way that can’t really be seen yet, but a digital revolution is really imminent worldwide”.

Grans acknowledged that Nigeria was ready for the digital revolution considering the approval given to conduct 5G tests recently.

The Interview Editors

Written by The Interview Editors

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