By Tunde Abatan
The Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC,has a tall dream.
The dream which is in conformity with it’s regulatory role in the communications industry, is to change the narrative of research papers on innovations gathering dust in the various research and tertiary institutions in the country without any step to patent them for local usage.
NCC
Hence,the present narrative the NCC is poised to promote indigenous technology in the light of changing dynamics of the telecommunications industry.
The regulatory body in conjunction with it’s supervisory Ministry of Communication and Digital Technology has called for proposals from academics in Nigerian institutions of learning.
The aim is to encourage telecommunications based research innovations from tertiary institutions in the country.
The research expected are such that,”are practical,locally realizable and have cheer potentials of contributing to the development of the telecommunications industry.
Besides,the NCC,which is blazing the trail in concrete efforts to promote development of local technology through promotion of innovations and their adaptation to local needs is a step in the right direction.
If the researches are successfully implemented ,it will definitely be a different narrative where innovations developed by individuals,bodies and institutions like the Project Development Agency,PRODA and others are left to gather dust in abandoned workshops while others end up in book shelves of tertiary institutions and agencies with lack of political will to develop such for the advancement of national growth.
At the end of the day,innovations left undeveloped in Nigeria by local scientists,engineers and investors always contribute to brain drain as investors migrated to other climes where their works are transformed to reality, patented and used to enhance national development.
This could be done both through private sector initiatives of government.
According to MCC in it’s request for proposals(RFP),the initiative is to help build capacity in the tertiary institutions and also promote Nigeria’s contribution to the pool of technologies in use in the telecommunications industry.
It should be noted that technology and it’s development and deployment could only endure in any environment where such innovations are conceived and tailored to meet local needs in it’s adaptability while also having a global competitive edge.
Hence,it is not out of place to say that the NCC conscious of its role as a regulator in the telecommunications industry,has identified and mapped out five key areas where the researches are required to develop innovations. This areas are:
* 5G Deployment-This is in view of the need to catch up with the outside world in deploying the latest technology.
* Innovative Clean Energy technology
* Advanced Method of Quality of Service(QoS),Quality of Experience Management and Test Mechanism
*Internet of Things,(IOT)Low Power Wide Area Network Technology(LPWAN)
*Monitoring and localization of Drones
If the proposals and resultant innovations are eventually accepted and adopted for implementation and patented by the NCC,it’s parent ministry,The Federal Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy,the country,not short of brilliant and innovative minds, would have succeeded in laying a solid foundation for patent and producing technologies needed for the transformation of indigenous technologies needed for the rapid growth of the nations telecommunications sector and the attendant multiplier effects on the industry in all ramifications.
It should be noted that,had such initiatives now being encouraged by the NCC been done in the past,various other innovations in other sectors would have been patented for mass production in Nigeria.
This would definitely have impacted positively on our local manufacturing sector and consequently reduced our level of importation which for now only succeeded in giving jobs to foreign manufacturing concerns.
NCC’s call for proposals is thus a direct challenge to budding scientists, innovators,technologists in our various tertiary institutions who can any day raise their heads high among their contemporaries in developed nations some of who are Nigerians who were taken away by brain drain.
If similar initiatives were undertaken by agencies in other sub-sectors of our economy,such talents would have been used in developing their countries economy,reduce importation,over reliance of today, which directly reduced our productive capacity, affects the value of our currency as the relative capacity of the 70s and 80s have been lost over the years.
Except initiatives been pursued by the NCC is extended to other agencies and regulators of key sectors if our economy,the value of our currency will continue to nose dive for so long as we continue to import practically everything we need including expertise.
The NCC by sponsoring research in the area of telecommunications which has over the past two decades have become one of the most crucial sub-sectors of our economy is a conscious effort for expanding the telecommunications industry as it is an indispensable agent of transformation of the nation’s socio economic landscape .
