House commends NCC on DAP, ECC

By The Citizen

The House of Representatives has commended the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, on the implementation speed of the Digital Awareness Programmes, DAP, and the Emergency Communications Centre, ECC, projects across the country, hailing both as major citizen empowerment programmes whose impact will be felt across the nation and beyond.

Chairman, House Committee on Communications, Honourable Oyetunde Oladimeji Ojo, who particularly showered encomiums on the Executive Vice Chairman of the Commission, Dr. Eugene Juwah for his purposeful leadership of the Commission during the Commissioning of DAP at Erijiyan Government High School in Ekiti State, said the project is also an indication of how the Commission has faithfully utilized the budgets appropriated to it by the  government, especially at this period when the availability of physical infrastructures has become the basic criteria for performance measurement.

Hon. Ojo while Commissioning the DAP at Erijiyan Government High School, said the impact of this project, even in rural Nigeria, can easily be felt and such, conveys the appreciation of government, and the community to the Commission for investing in the future of their youth in an area that is very crucial to the development of the Nigerian nation. In support of the Commission, he also pledged to pay for the bandwidth fees for the school for the next three years after the expiration of the initial payment by the NCC, to ensure that the school does not experience any down time on its Internet connection in the next four years.

Hon. Ojo who led the entire community to the event where the ICT facility was declared open for use by the students and the surrounding community, also inspected the Emergency Communications Centre under construction in Ado Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital where he also commended the Commission for helping government to tackle the key issues of security and emergency situations which has become a recurrent problem in the country. He conveyed the words of the Ekiti State Government in pledging every support to the Commission for early completion of the ECC project in the state capital.

Executive Vice Chairman of the NCC, Dr. Eugene Juwah, who was represented by a Commissioner of the NCC, Mrs. Biodun Olujimi, said more than 222 higher institutions across the nation have so far benefitted from DAP while another programme called Wireless Cloud has yet another beneficiary 93 higher institutions of learning.

'DAP is part of the major objectives of the Commission to achieve universal access for ICT. Having conquered the voice telephony, the area of data has become our major focus at the NCC. DAP, and the related programmes, are some of the ways that the Commission has strived to key the Nigerian youth into accelerated universal access. By making Internet services available to the younger generation, we are helping to build the bridge to connect this generation to the next', he said.

Dr. Juwah said the components of DAP include an air-conditioned computer lab in a property renovated by the Commission, and equipped with 20 desktop computers, branded computer tables and chairs, a server, a VSAT connection with a one year Internet bandwidth supply, and a 16.5KVA Generator.

According to Juwah, DAP and related programmes in schools by the Commission are designed to equip the students, and the lecturers, with the resources to improve on their various skills and endeavours using the latest technologies. With the availability of these resources, teachers and lecturers have the opportunity to research and equip themselves for their jobs'.

Digital Awareness Porgramme, DAP, and another version of same called Digital Awareness Programme for Tertiary Institutions, ADAPTI, is a programme of the Nigerian Communications Commission where it equips secondary and tertiary institutions across the country with ICT facilities to improve their ICT skills and access to the Internet by providing computers and other infrastructures as well as establishing a link to the Internet to the respective institutions.

On the other hand, Emergency Communication Centres are being constructed by the Commission in all the state capitals and Abuja, where it provides a centre that would handle and communicate emergency situations to institutions capable of handling them like ambulance services, police, fire service, road safety, and similar services as  done in other parts of the world. When completed, Nigerians would be able to dial one number already designated as 122 to reach the centre.