The Minister of Communications, Mr Adebayo Shittu, said on Thursday that the plan to establish a University of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in Nigeria was aimed at equipping Nigerians with the best skills.
Shittu told newsmen in Abuja that facilities at the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) would be utilised to achieve this objective.
“We feel that we can ultimately utilise the facilities of NITDA by transforming it into an ICT University, which will be the first of its kind in Africa.
“We are also engaging the private sector to collaborate with us in this venture; the Nigerian government is not going to spend huge amounts in running that place.
“The ministry will be inviting companies like Motorola, Facebook and all the big companies to come and adopt campuses; by so doing, they will bring their money, technology and skills.
“Nigerians will, therefore, be equipped with the best skills to look for jobs all over the world.’’
Shittu said that the ministry decided to take this step in order to stop the trend of Nigerians having to travel to India, Pakistan, Malaysia and Western Europe to acquire high level ICT training.
He added that if a country like South Korea which has expertise in e-governance could adopt a campus at the university, the capacity of Nigerians who would be trained there would be strengthened.
“If we have Korean telecoms companies coming to adopt one of our campuses, that will strengthen us instead of going to South Korea.
“We can have all the training and the number of people who will have the training locally will certainly be more than those who will have opportunities of going abroad to train.
“So, we feel that the ICT University is one of the big legacies that this government wants to give to Nigerians by adding value to computer science education,” the minister said.
He had said at a workshop organised for secondary school students in the FCT in 2016 that the establishment of the institution would bridge the ICT skill gap in the country.
The Minister of Communication, Mr Adebayo Shittu, has described the Internet as a resourceful tool that could be employed to transform Nigeria’s education sector and contribute to economic transformation of the continent.
Minister of Communications, Mr. Adebayo Shittu.
Shittu stated this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Kigali on Friday.
He was commenting on a report of a new study on internet released at the African Regional Internet and Development Dialogue in Kigali by the Internet Society.
The minister, who commended the study, stressed that internet was not only the future of education but of other sectors such as commerce, transportation, health, governance among others.
Shittu said Nigeria was putting in place mechanism to take its rightful place on the continent and world’s Information and Communications Technology (ICT).
He said that the present administration had invested and still investing in the development of ICT and had also created favourable environment to attract investors to the sector.
The study, which results were released in Kigali, showed that internet offers an opportunity for addressing the learning needs of diverse groups in Africa.
This, it stated, included the bulk of learners that are currently out of school.
The study titled: “Internet for Education in Africa,” stated that a blended learning environment that leverages internet could potentially help connect education to work and improve the skills that allow youths to access employment.
“It could also help empower lifelong learners, and importantly, support women, girls and disabled people to participate in learning without space, time and other cultural and social barriers.”
It described blended learning as an education system that combines online digital media with traditional classroom methods.
“The participation in the global economy is now dependent on 21st century skills, which includes the ability to navigate in the digital world.
‘‘Progress in countries like India, China and South Korea shows that connectivity serves as a foundation for access to information economy jobs and advancing innovations,” it stated.
The study shows that in Africa, using internet for learning is a real possibility.
It added that more than a quarter of the African population (334 million) has access to internet, the majority of which are young people.
According to the study, there are 147 million Facebook users in Africa as of June 2016.
It, however, noted that such access to internet and use of social media had not been harnessed systematically to advance education and learning at individual and institutional levels.
The study said there was hope that internet and ICT can transform the education landscape in Africa, but that there are still challenges blocking internet use in education in Africa.
These, it stated, included limited literacy and skills that are needed to participate in the Internet economy and lack of infrastructure to host and exchange locally available content.
Others, it stated, are inadequate supportive infrastructure such as electricity, and high taxes on ICT hardware and software, among others.
Dr Lishan Adam, one of the lead researchers behind the study, said it was also part of reviewing the position of Africa in global education commitments.
“As internet is growing, educational challenges are advancing and normally the two are not supposed to be intersecting.
‘‘What we are trying to do is to look at where we are in terms of providing access to quality education, which is in line with the global education commitments under Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
‘‘The education targets of the SDGs, among others aim to ensure universal pre-primary, primary and secondary education, achieve gender equity among learners, ensure disabled learners attain equal education, and foster youth employability,” he said.
To achieve this, Adam stated that improved connectivity in the region and the vast learning resources that are available over the internet are useful.
According to him, while access to mobile broadband has increased in urban areas, last-mile connectivity remains a challenge.
‘‘With about half of the population more than 25kilometres from the nearest fiber connection, broadband connection in rural areas remains very low.
‘‘With over 70 per cent of the population living in rural areas, the majority who need internet the most, such as rural schools, do not have it,” he said.
Apple Inc has announced plans to open a retail outlet in South Korea, its first in the country that homes its archrival, Samsung Electronics.
“We’re excited about opening our first Apple Store in Korea, one of the world’s economic centres and a leader in telecommunication and technology, with a vibrant K-culture,” Apple said in a media briefing on Friday.
The iPhone maker listed hiring notices for 15 positions dated Thursday on its website, including a store leader and business manager.
The listings did not specify the exact location or when those who are hired will begin working.
“We’re now hiring the team that will offer our customers in Seoul the service, education and entertainment that is loved by Apple customers around the world,” Apple said.
Apple declined to comment on where in Seoul its retail store would be located or when it would start operations.
But South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency said in a report on Friday that construction was underway for the store at a location in a southern district of Seoul and that the work will likely be completed by the end of November 2017.
South Korea’s President Park Geun-hye was on Friday impeached by parliament amid a wave of protest which trailed her corruption scandal.
As hundreds of police formed a wall to hold back thousands of demonstrators outside the National Assembly in Seoul, lawmakers voted 234 to 56 in favor of impeachment, easily meeting the requirement for a two-thirds majority due to dozens of members of Park’s own ruling party voting against her.
Outside, protesters singing the Christmas carol “Feliz Navidad,” with the lyrics changed to “not Park Geun-hye,” broke into cheers and songs in a carnival atmosphere as the vote was announced. The result means Park is immediately suspended from power and the interim leadership passes to Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn.
South Korea’s first female president – and daughter of former dictator Park Chung-hee — fell as the wave of populism that fueled Brexit, scuttled Hillary Clinton’s presidential aspirations and toppled Italian leader Matteo Renzi reached Asia’s fourth-largest economy.
After weeks of mass protests near the presidential office, Koreans came from across the country to fill the boulevards around parliament in the freezing cold, demanding not only Park’s removal, but an end to the ties between the political and business elite that were once the bedrock of South Korea’s economic miracle.
“This will escalate the popular enthusiasm for reforms by another level,” said Kim Yun-cheol, who teaches political science at the Humanitas College of Kyung Hee University in Seoul. “Demand for experiments will intensify along with pressure on Park to resign. Simultaneously, a presidential race will accelerate, especially in the opposition, and that has the potential to shake the political landscape again.”
For months, prosecutors and opposition lawmakers have relentlessly pursued the ties between Park and her friend Choi Soon-sil and the links between the president’s office and the family-run chaebol conglomerates that dominate the economy. The stream of often lurid revelations swelled anger in the nation’s 50 million population, many of whom are suffering from widening inequality, soaring household debt, youth unemployment and a slump in the nation’s once-mighty steel mills and shipyards.
South Korea’s economy is projected to expand just 2.7 percent this year, marking the first five-year run of sub-3.5 percent growth since the 1950-53 Korean War.
Entering parliament before the vote, opposition politician Park Jie-won said the impeachment “will open a new era for Korea, an era where chaebol-politician ties are cut” and the government can focus on issues like “unification, youth unemployment, income gaps between rich and poor.”
Some protesters had traveled across the country to witness the vote. Others had camped out in front of the National Assembly building. In the morning, they waved placards against a clear, cold sky, announcing: “A great day for impeachment,” demanding “Dismantle the chaebols,” and warning the lawmakers, “We are watching you!”
