The Digital Bridge Institute (DBI) a creation of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has opened a telecommunications Laboratory in Abuja, the capital of Nigeria.
The new laboratory has a full complement of GSM/UMTS equipment and will be fully deployed for the training and retraining of entry level and middle level engineers in the telecommunications industry.
The Abuja laboratory is the first step in an ambitious plan by the Institute to develop functional laboratories and workshops in its campuses in Kano, Lagos, Enugu and Yola. These locations will serve as focal ICT training centers and will in time transform to Innovation Hubs.
The laboratory was donated by Huawei Technologies. The chairman of the DBI board of Directors, Titi Omo-Ettu said the commissioning of the laboratory represents a leap in the efforts of the Institute to provide qualitative hands-on practical telecommunications and ICT training in line with its core mandate of building functional skills.
He said the development of skilled workforce across all sectors of the economy has become a national priority.
“We are keenly aware that there is a global shift from natural resources as a basis for national competitiveness to human resources underpinned by knowledge and innovation”, Omo-Ettu noted adding that knowledge and innovation drive the new technological age of the 21st century and have enabled countries such as United States, Singapore, India, China among others to transform their economies and achieve rapid and sustained economic growth.
According to him it is also increasingly evident that innovation is not about academic qualifications or certificates; the emphasis is on the skills and creative abilities of the individual and the vision of DBI is to be the center of excellence and the reference point for ICT capacity building, not just by providing practical usable skills that address the needs of industry, but by creating a knowledge environment in which innovation and creativity thrive.
Mindful of the future of the role of skills in the new digital economy, DBI has embarked on the development of National Occupational Standards under the auspices of the National Board for Technical Education.
Omo-Ettu said DBI believes that a clear path to changing the poor narrative of our economy in terms of job creation is the recognition of the importance of skills as a means of easing the unemployment situation in the country and creating a pool of entrepreneurs to drive growth in the new innovation economy. The N-Power programme and other like schemes attest to this.
He expressed gratitude to Huawei Technologies Nigeria for the magnanimity in extending this positive gesture to the DBI hoping that the partnership which we established about three years ago will further blossom to increase value for our stakeholders, particularly the teeming population of young Nigerian graduates who desperately need skills to find their bearing in the industry.
