Research & Development
The Research and Development (R&D) activities of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) involve conducting and supporting cutting edge research into emerging technologies that promote the better understanding of trends in the Telecommunications industry, and provide information/data to support the development of necessary strategies, standards and guidelines, and championing telecommunications-based innovations that provide life changing solutions to societal challenges.
To this end, the R&D Department of the NCC provides grants to support research by leading academics and researchers from Nigerian tertiary institutions, and holds regular competitions e.g. "Hackathons" open to technology hubs and Innovation Driven Enterprises (IDE) to stimulate innovation and development in the telecommunications and digital economy sector in Nigeria.
Click here for the List of Telecommunications Based Research Projects
Click here for the List of Professorial Chairs
Click here for the List of Consultancy Studies
Click here for the List of Competition Winners
Commercialization is the conversion of research outputs into products and services to meet the needs of people.
The objectives of NCC’s commercialization agenda include, among others:
- To transform the telecom-based outputs (prototypes) emanating from the research funded by the Commission into products that will impact positively on the lives of Nigerians by solving societal problems.
- Accelerate the development and conversion of the Nigerian economy into a digital economy.
- Justify the Commission’s expenditure on research and development activities in tertiary institutions.
- To increase the utilization of indigenous technological outputs
- To refocus the Commission’s research and development efforts in the ICT sector to become market driven.
- Wealth creation and revenue generation.
Download: pdf Roadmap for Commercialization of Telecommunications-Based Research Outputs & Prototypes (387 KB)
The following is a listing of telecoms-based research reports as sponsored by the NCC .
Digital technology brings communication, education, shopping, entertainment, news, games, fun and much more to everyone, including children. Technology provides children instantaneous access to huge quantities of beneficial materials and offers them a participatory pathway to involvement in society. Digital technology, especially the Internet, is also a vector for cyber-criminals to dispense harm, annoyance and other wrongdoings.
The proliferation of digital technologies is accompanied by increasing concern about children’s exposure to associated risks and threats. Exposure to risks turns out to be a general side effect of today’s children growing up in a digital world. This calls for a pragmatic approach to mitigate the desire to avoid risks and the necessity to access beneficial materials and to balance the immense benefits of digital technology with the safety of the children.
This study is designed to provide an accurate depiction of how children consume digital technology in Nigeria. As such, the respondent pool is structured in favour of children of 4-16 years of age. The study explores the issue of children’s device ownership, usage and benefits in pari passu with their awareness of the risks and challenges.
The Nigerian Communications Commission, the Regulator of the telecommunications industry in Nigeria, supports amongst other things, telecommunications-based research innovations from tertiary institutions in the country that are practical, locally realisable and have clear potential of contributing to the development of the telecommunications industry.
Pursuant to this objective the Commission invites proposals from academics in tertiary institutions that have feasible research ideas, capable of replacing or enhancing foreign technologies in the telecommunications ecosystem in Nigeria. It is envisaged that the initiative will help build capacity in the tertiary institutions and promote Nigeria’s contribution to the pool of technologies in use in the communications industry.
The Commission has awarded the 2020 Research Grants (Telecommunications-based Research Innovations from Academics in Nigerian Tertiary Institutions programme) to the tune of Fifty Four Million Seven Hundred and Five Thousand, Six Hundred and Thirty Two Naira, Fourteen Kobo (₦54,705,632.14) only to the five (5) tertiary institutions that were adjudged to have best responded to the Request For Proposals published in national dailies and on the Commission’s website and Social Media handles on Thursday July 3, 2020.
- STUDY: Emerging Role Of Data And Fintech In The Development Of Digital Economy
- STUDY: The Challenges and Survivability of ISP Licensees in the Nigerian Telecom Sector
- STUDY: Challenges of Technology Penetration in an Infrastructure Deficit Economy (Nigeria Perspective)
- STUDY: The Impact of DND Service 2442 Short Code in Effective Telecoms Consumer Complaints Management