The nine-member committee, which was inaugurated by the Executive Vice Chairman, NCC, Prof. Umar Danbatta, on Tuesday, September 3, 2019, draws membership from the NCC and Digital Bridge Institute (DBI).
The committee chaired by Haru Alhassan, Director, New Media and Information Security, NCC also has the following as members: Abraham Oshadami, Head, Information Technology, NCC; Freda Murray-Bruce, Assistant Director, Research and Development, NCC; Afure Iloka, Special Adviser, Legal, to EVC; Viola Usoro, Ag. Administrator, DBI; Allwell Ogunedo, Head, Finance, DBI; Ngozi Nwoche, Head, Research, DBI; Tonia Ansa-Otudor, Secretary, DBI and Nafisa Idris, Deputy Manager, Commission Secretariat.
According to the EVC, the inauguration of the committee was sequel to resolutions by the Board of the Commission at its meeting on Thursday, June 13, 2019, directing the NCC management to constitute the committee.
The EVC read out a 10-point terms of reference to serve as a compass for the committee which include; reviewing the report of the expert groups on the development of appropriate blueprint/curriculum for ICT innovation research programme in Nigeria; developing guidelines for the establishment of sustainable funding mechanism for ICT hubs and ICT innovation centres; and creating guidelines for the development of standard competency-based curriculum and practical laboratory that will facilitate hands-on learning.Others include proposing modalities for leveraging on the DBI and universities as innovation hubs and centres; developing Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that can be leveraged for results management; developing criteria for selection of universities as ICT hubs/Innovation centres, among others.
Danbatta urged the committee “to ensure good spread across the six geo political zones of the country and comply with federal character principle in the implementation of the project.”
He also charged the committee to ensure equity and equality in the utilisation of the resources earmarked by the Board of NCC to implement “this project targeted at the Nigerian youths with a view to producing our own ‘Zuckerbergs’ in Nigeria.”