Telecoms industry regulator, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), said as a demonstration of its desire to encourage the development of innovation, it has given ₦50 million to members of the Nigerian Academy of Engineering (NAE) and various universities to promote Research and Development (R&D).
Its Executive Vice-Chairman, Prof. Umar Danbatta, who spoke in Lagos at the weekend on the sideline of a dinner organised by NAE, explained that the ₦50 million was in fulfilment of part of NCC’s Eight-point agenda he unveiled, one of which is to seek strategic collaboration and partnership.
“Only recently, we gave out ₦50 million to members of the Academy and staff from various universities in Nigeria to facilitate the conduct of research that will translate into innovation and will ultimately address challenges in the industry,” Danbatta said.
He said the NCC will always seek collaboration that will see to the disruption of innovation, which according to him, would bring about new ways of doing things, enhance efficiency and productivity.
“NCC realises the importance of collaboration. That is why we put strategic collaboration and partnership in our Eight-point agenda,” Danbatta said.
He said the collaboration between the academia and the industry has taken a firm root with a lot of work going on, assuring that very soon, NCC will announce the results of these collaborations with NAE.