The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has embarked on building six Information Communication Technology (ICT) parks across Nigeria, in its bid to promote socio-economic transformation.

The ICT parks are built to provide Innovation Labs and Digital Fabrication Laboratories (FabLabs) for turning ideas into prototypes and products by innovators. The parks will be utilised as hubs for capacity building and digital skills acquisition so as to create employment and facilitate the emergence of smart cities and digital industrial complexes. They parks will have stable power supply and will be equipped with fast internet service.

The ICT Parks Project which involves the construction and equipping of fully functional Tier-4 Digital Industrial Complexes in the six geo-political zones of Nigeria, is designed to support the federal government’s ICT related policies.

In a statement about the initiative, the Executive Deputy Chairman of the NCC, Prof. Umar Danbatta said, ‘The whole idea of putting skill acquisition and innovation at the forefront of the initiative is to produce youths that can be self-reliant, and provide employment for themselves and other Nigerians’.

He further added that ‘The ICT Parks Project is another move by the current leadership of the commission to boost youth digital skill acquisition, promote innovation, provide jobs, and ultimately support the digital economy agenda of the Federal Government’.

The commission is flagging off the project with four parks: southwest (Abeokuta), southeast (Enugu), northeast (Maiduguri) and northwest (Kano).

Source: This Day

Photo source: The Kingsway School