Prof. Umar Danbatta, the executive vice-chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), says the management instituted a research grant project because of the relevance of the academia in the development and sustainable growth of the telecommunication industry in Nigeria.
Danbatta stated this during the official presentation of the N65 million award letters to 11 universities in the country for research and development in Abuja.
The universities include Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria with two awards. Others are University of Lagos, University of Ibadan, University of Port-Harcourt, Bayero University Kano, University of Jos, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Bauchi, Federal University of Technology, Minna and Federal University, Akure.
He explained that the recognition of the role of the academia in the development of the sector was the basis for instituting the research grant project, pointing out that the action was to underscore the critical role, expectations from and the confidence the commission has in the academia in working towards national re-engineering and transformation.
According to him: “The academia provides the knowledge resource and research results that govern transformational growth and facilitate innovations in industries worldwide. The academia imparts knowledge to the youth, turning them into well informed and transformational citizens with innovative ideas capable of revolutionalising industries and reshaping our world,”.
He noted that for the 2018 financial year, the commission received 63 research proposals and after stringent evaluations, 11 proposals were found to have met the set criteria. “This is a clear testimony of the objectivity and complexity of evaluation process in ensuring that best quality is achieved and the researches are such that will produce prototypes with the potential of providing solutions to both local and global challenges,” he stated.
