Abolaji Adebayo 
Building technology hubs is a great way towards developing the technology of a country; it is expected that the ongoing Digital Industrial Parks being constructed by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) will develop and accelerate local technology production in Nigeria. Abolaji Adebayo writes
For a nation to develop technologically and build its economy around the sector, it requires various steps especially for the developing countries like Nigeria. One of the surest steps towards developing technology in a country after the policy document has been sealed is to build a conglomerate or tech hub where experts will work complementarily to develop the nation’s technology. To do this, first, the Federal Government of Nigeria came up with a policy, the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS), unveiled by President Muhammadu Buhari last year.
The policy has eight pillars on which the development of the sector is to grow. These include: Development Regulations; Digital Literacy; Skill Development; Solid Infrastructure; Service Infrastructure; Soft Infrastructure; Digital Societies and Emerging Technologies; and Indigenous Development. As a concrete step to building the sector base on the 2nd, 3rd and 8th pillar, the NCC embarked on Digital Industrial Parks project to be built in each of the six geo-political zones across the country.
The aim of the project is to, among others, accelerate digital skills among the youths, promote indigenous tech content both hardware and software, and make Nigeria the technology hub of Africa, so that the country becomes the major export of technology among other African nations.
The project by the NCC, according to experts, will go a long way in adding the needed fillip to the Federal Government’s National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS) especially as the project resonates with the pillars 2, 3 and 8 of the NDEPS.
Roadmap
The NDEPS provides the direction on major activities that the ICT industry must embark upon towards consolidating on achievements already recorded in the industry and highlights new areas that should be focused on in order for the country to achieve a truly digital economy for the country. In particular, the project would fast track the development of emerging technologies while the youths are to be equipped with the tools and skills needed to develop such technologies. The ICT parks initiative, according to the Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Prof. Umar Dambatta, is in line with global vest practices, to boost youth digital skills acquisition, promote innovations, provide jobs for the teaming Nigerian youths and ultimately support the overall digital economy agenda of the Federal Government. “The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), in line with global best practices, is currently creating another initiative to build digital skills acquisition and provide jobs for the teaming Nigerian youths, promote innovation, and facilitate the delivery of the Federal Government’s digital economy agenda. “While the Commission, as the country’s independent national telecoms regulatory authority, has always played and continued to play strategic role in the digital transformation of the Nigerian economy, most especially in the area of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure and digital skill development, it is steeping up such commitments through building of ICT parks across the country’s six geo-political zones,” he said.
Tech centre
An ICT park comprises an area or location with concentration of all ICT facilities, which enables a concerted leap into the digital age by creating a dynamic environment in which local talent is incubated, cultivated, and shared. ICT parks are best tested and trusted institutional mechanisms to address the needs of technologyintensive, knowledge-based Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) globally. Essentially, the NCC said the four main objectives of establishing the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Parks are to provide Innovation Labs and Digital Fabrication Laboratories (Fablabs) for use by ICT innovators and entrepreneurs to turn their ideas into products and prototypes; provide a commercial hub for ICT capacity building and digital skills; create employment and entrepreneurial activities; and facilitate smart city deployment across the digital industrial complex.
Assessing parks’ facilities
Danbatta, as the Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, said the NCC’s ICT Parks Project initiative involved the construction and equipping of fully-functional Tier-4 Digital Industrial Complex (DIC) in each of the six geo-political zones across the country. According to him, the project concept is designed to support Federal Government ICT – related policies by facilitating the availability and accessibility of ICT Services across the country and to promote their usage across all sectors. The ICT Park consists of laboratories for ICT innovations and Commercial Hubs providing capacity building to ICT startups and entrepreneurial activities. The Parks are designed to have fast internet service (broadband) and constant power supply.
Project’s national spread
Shedding more light on the ICT Park project, Danbatta, who recently visited one of the parks being built in Maiduguri, North-East geo-political zone, said, the NCC decided to embark on the important project “which will see ICT parks decentralised in all the six geo-political zones of the country.” He, however, stated that the Commission was starting with four zones at the moment. These include the ones located in Abeokuta for the South- West; Enugu for South East, Maiduguri for North-East and Kano for the North West. The projects, he said, were being implemented with a view to building capacity, exposing Nigerian teaming youths to capacity building initiatives in the areas of skills acquisition and innovation. “The whole idea of putting these two things (i.e. skill acquisition and innovation) at the forefront of this very important initiative is to produce youths that can be self-reliant, that can generate employment for themselves and for other Nigerians,” he noted. Danbatta said the project, which is consistent with global best practices, had targeted areas of in each of the zones with large concentration of youths. He promised that because of its design to have a national spread, the Commission would ensure that no part of the country is be left out of the initiative but added every corner of Nigeria would see the initiative taking up, of course, at different times.
Expectations
Speaking on the expected tecfruits from the ICT Parks, Danbatta said: “As I said, we have four ICT parks, which are at different stages of development. Going forward, we hope to see software development, incubation, including, even, hardware development. “Above all, through NCC ICT Parks, we hope to see innovative technologies that will leverage the broadband network the NCC is trying to deploy in order to socially and economically transform our communities and societies.”
Boost for digital
economy According to the NCC boss, as NCC deepens broadband access beyond its current 38 per cent towards achieving the 70 per cent broadband penetration set for 2025 by the Federal Government, the Commission, through the ICT Park, will build a pool of digital skills and literacy in line with the country’s National Digiotal Economy Policy and Strategy, unveiled by President Muhammadu Buhari in 2019. “As you may be aware, one of the eight pillars of the NDEPS is Digital Skills and Literacy and in this regard, NCC is supporting this critical pillar of the digital economy agenda. This is because, when we provide resilient broadband infrastructure platforms, there is a need for us to encourage local technology products and applications that will ride on the infrastructure toward developing the country’s overall socio-economic ecosystem in a sustainable way,” he said. Asked when the projects will be ready for commissioning, Danbatta said he just visited the Kano Park to examine the level of progress of the project while the other three ICT Parks being built in Maiduguri, Abeokuta and Enugu are also at different levels of completion. “So, going by the level of work already done, I would like to say that before the year runs out, al other things being equal, we should be able to commission one or two of these ICT parts in the country,” he said.
Youth empowerment
Danbatta further explained the huge opportunities, which the ICT Parks will bring to would-be beneficiaries of the project among the Nigerian youths. “I would like to send out a very important message to our youths, especially those who are currently occupied with various innovative applications, those who have even acquired the skills and are looking for where to put these skills to bring the skills to fruition by, maybe, incubating them, by commercialising them, by giving publicity to these excellent initiatives, that there is going to be a centre in the ICT Parks. “These centres would be used to showcase their innovations to the global community and very soon, there is light at the end of the tunnel, these various initiatives by the youths in areas of apps, various software products developed and other initiatives, will see t light of day. “This is because, as I said, we are going to have a centre where we are going to be able to showcase this, not only to potential investors in this country but also to the international audience, who definitely will be interested in some of these important applications that, we hope, we can come up with,” he said.
Last line
When completed, it is expected that the parks would be put to proper use to accelerate the development and growth of local technology contents.
