On Thursday, the Executive Vice Chairman/ CEO of the Nigerian Communications Commission, Professor Umar Garba Danbatta, addressed the 9th Lagos Public Relations Stakeholders’ Conference on Leadership and Poverty Eradication.
The EVC, represented by Mrs. Nnena Ukoha, Head of Corporate Communications, called on Nigerians to explore opportunities in the Digital Economy to eradicate poverty in the country.
Speaking on the topic, Poverty Eradication in Nigeria: Leveraging Opportunities in a Digital Economy, he noted that ”For most developing countries, particularly those with large populations, inadequate infrastructure has made it difficult to participate as equal partners in the worldwide enterprise of knowledge production and dissemination.
This portends an unequal distribution of access, resources, and opportunities in this new economy, the Digital Economy. To avert the birth of a new type of poverty (Information Poverty), the ICT gap (digital divide) between the developed and developing nations must be bridged.”
Like most developing nations, Nigeria is not enjoying the full benefits of the ICT revolution due to inadequate telecommunication infrastructure, capacity to maintain existing infrastructure, and policies for equitable public participation as producers and consumers of information and knowledge.
“A nation’s development is measured in economic terms such as per capita income, Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and Gross National Product (GNP), among other indices. Indices such as level of literacy, social development, human capital development, cultural innovation and technological preparedness are not regarded as a measure of development. If we must tap into the ICT revolution, then it is time for a paradigm shift! The standard economic terms are not a reflection of the new age of the Digital Economy, “he said.
On efforts made by the Nigerian government, “There are several past and ongoing efforts by the Nigerian Government to alleviate poverty through ICT using organizations and programmes like the National Information Technology Agency (NITDA), using the offices of the Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST) across the country as ICT hubs, the Universal Service Provision Fund (USPF) to ensure that telecommunications services are accessible to the broadest number of people (and communities) at affordable prices.
USPF has poverty-reducing activities like the Community Resource Centers, USPF Hackathon, RUBI – Rural Broadband Initiative, UnICC – University InterCampus Connectivity, BTS – Base Transceiver Stations, IRC – Information Resource Centres, SKC – School Knowledge Centres, and the E-Health Project. “
The EVC said that “NCC will continue to support the vision of the present government to put Nigeria amongst the top twenty in the comity of Nations and to align our developmental goals in keeping with the seventeen United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) but particularly the goal to eradicate extreme poverty for all people everywhere which is currently measured as people living on less than $1.25 a day, by the year 2030.
He listed initiatives at the NCC directly or indirectly target poverty eradication to include;
“Advanced Digital Appreciation Programme: Transforming the Academics: Advanced Digital Appreciation Programme for Tertiary Institutions, ADAPTI is aimed at bridging the digital divide existing in academia with the provision of computers and other ICT facilities to equip the lecturers and other experts to improve ICT skills and also to enrich the students.
The overriding objective of this intervention has been to elicit the pervasive application of ICT skills in academia for enhanced staff output, institutional efficiency, and student enculturation to e-based learning for sustainable national growth.”
“Digital Awareness Programme (DAP): this is a special intervention programme to address the digital information knowledge gap in the country, especially among the teeming youthful population. On the last count, the DAP Project supports 229 Secondary Schools across the Six (6) Geopolitical Zones of Nigeria, including the Federal Capital Territory.
The strategy in this programme is to expose schools and colleges to Information and Communications Technology (ICT) awareness, usage, and application by facilitating access to ICT tools by the provision of twenty-one (21) Desktop Computers, Local Area Networks, Printers, Scanners, VSAT Dish and deployment of one Year Bandwidth Subscription for Internet Access.”
“NCC- Digital Bridge Institute (DBI) Projects: Nigeria’s ICT flagship institution, the Digital Bridge, DBI, came into existence in 2004 to impact the national ICT human capital building efforts by bridging the ICT knowledge gap.”
“Frequency Auction: Contributing to National Purse: The Nigerian telecom regulator has contributed to the Federation Account from proceeds of frequency auctions and licensing. The frequencies auctioned are used for the deployment of services for poverty reduction and the benefit of the citizenry. The Commission clearly understands this value chain and is determined to uphold it. “
“Value Added Services (VAS): Telecommunication has given birth to several value-added services that benefit all cadre of people irrespective of location and level of education. These VAS are great channels for revenue generation. Some VAT is content development, Phone repair network, IT device accessories sales market (phone pouches, screen covers, etc.), Ringback tones, and even government agencies providing service on telecom platforms, e.g., NAFDAC – drug authentication code. “
