Executive Vice-Chairman and Chief Executive of the Nigerian Communications Commission, Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta today inaugurated a 15-member Evaluation Committee to assess 2020 telecommunications-based research from academics in the nation’s tertiary institutions.
In a statement by the Commission’s Director of Public Affairs, Dr. Ikechukwu Adinde, the Committee, chaired by Prof. Mu’azu Bashir, a professor of Computer and Control Engineering and Head of Computer Engineering Department at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria was inaugurated at the Commission’s Head Office in Abuja.
However, Danbatta during the inauguration, said that the initiative was the Commission’s commitment towards encouraging the development of indigenous innovative solutions that would impact not only the telecom industry/ICT sector positively but also the nation as a whole.
According to Danbatta, the Commission understood that funding Research and Development (R&D) was fundamental to ensuring that the needs of consumers were properly anticipated and met while enabling sustainable economic growth as the Digital Economy-based Research Innovations project had underlined importance of funding R&D.
He said year 2020 request for proposals was tailored to providing innovations and solving challenges in five emerging areas of technology.
The areas, he said included innovative clean energy technology; 5G deployment in Nigeria; Internet of Things (IoT), low power Wide Area Network (WAN) technology; advanced methods of Quality of Service (QoS) and Quality of Experience (QoE) management and test mechanism as well as monitoring and localisation of drones.
While emphasising the importance of the telecommunication/ICT industry to innovative developments and transformations within the economy, Danbatta tasked members of the Committee to thoroughly evaluate submissions in order to sieve, identify and select the best from the proposals submitted.
He said: “We want to continuously support research projects that can lead to the development of new products and services in the industry as the key enabler of the nation’s digital economy. We are all aware of the appreciable contributions of the Nigerian Telecommunication sector to the growth of our Gross Domestic Product (GDP) over the years, which peaked at 14.53 per cent in the second quarter of 2020.
“Members of this Committee have been carefully selected from the Academia, related government institutions, and the industry based on their pedigree. I have no doubt in my mind that you will carry out the assignment to the highest acceptable standards,” the EVC said. The Committee is expected to carry out the assignment and submit its report within four (4) weeks from the day of inauguration.”
