The Nigerian Communications Commission,  NCC, has pledged over N500 million to universities and other tertiary institutions across the country to support research and innovations that would advance the country’s telecommunications sector.

At a two-day regional roundtable with academia, industry, and other stakeholders held over the weekend in Kano, Prof. Umar Danbatta, executive vice chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission, disclosed that the funds had been allocated for research grants to universities and tertiary institutions, including professorial chairs in the universities, in important fields to spur technological advancement.

Danbatta said the commission was now focused on supporting the academia in the commercialization of the prototypes from these innovative researches, noting that this was relevant to the Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy’s policy towards achieving indigenous technology for sustainable development of the country.

He said the roundtable, organized by the commission, was to provide the necessary platform to support the commercialization of locally-developed telecommunications innovations which NCC had been sponsoring.

“The commission collaborates with the Academia in maximizing the contributions of tertiary institutions to innovations and sustainable development of the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) industry as finance is needed to drive the possible success of these endeavors, “ Danbatta said.

He said these efforts had enabled the commission to contribute to national efforts to ensure overall growth of the industry and create wealth for innovators, saying all these were fundamental to the objective of the NCC’s R&D-oriented programmes.

Based on these, he said ideas, inventions, and improvements that emanated from academia were required by the industry for improved efficiency and productivity.

Danbatta said appreciable impacts had been achieved since the commission reinvigorated research grants for telecommunications-based research innovations from Nigerian academics, focusing on successful commercialisation of locally developed solutions to foster and deepen the uptake of indigenous technology by Nigerians.

Engr. Ubale Maska, the NCC’s Executive Commissioner for Technical Services, also disclosed that the organisation had so far granted 49 telecom-based research grants to research universities, 10 of which had been successfully developed into working prototypes that were shown to industry stakeholders.

He claimed that the commission’s research and development efforts were focused on advancing Indigenous Content Development and Adoption, one of the eight points of Pillar Eight of the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS), 2020–2030.