Federal Government charges tech company to adopt ICT University

The Federal Government of Nigeria has initiated efforts to convince multinational technology firms to adopt proposed ICT University slated to commence in September 2017.

The Minister of Communications Barrister Adebayo Shittu made this call when he hosted the management of Cisco Networking Academy in Abuja.

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Shittu urged Cisco Academy to adopt one of the campuses of the proposed ICT University stating that it would be named after them. He urged the company to highlight the role it plans to play as well as their mode of operation so that the government can work out a collaboration framework.

In the words of the Minister “Early indication of the role you would play and the modus operandi in the structure of governance should be detailed and in a way help government know how to collaborate with you,”

Shittu also asked Cisco to make a formal presentation of their proposal to the ministry for necessary considerations. He also itemised the inherent vital opportunities of the ICT Exhibition Park which Cisco could key into such as building good weather measurement devices, shops, database in workplaces to mention a few.

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Mr Toyin Olatayo who led the Cisco delegation said in his address that their visit to the ministry is to seek for areas Cisco can collaborate with the ministry, to make Nigeria’s Youths technology creators as opposed to being simply users of it.

Olutayo described the Cisco Networking Academy as an IT Skills and Career building program designed for learning institutions, communities, organizations and individuals. He said, “We hope to achieve our mission by converging digital disruptions, building Internet of Things (IoT) ecosystem and education through IoT.”

In his final remark, the Minister said the ICT university was established as a response to the need to bridge the technology gap in the country and create the friendly environment for manpower development and skill acquisition.