By Funmilayo Adeyemi
The Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) has been awarded the ICT Gold Merit Award by the Nigeria Computer Society (NCS) in recognition of contributions to Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in the country.
This is contained in a statement issued by the fund;s Acting Director, Public Affairs, Mr Abdulmumin Oniyangi in Abuja on Friday.
Oniyangi said the recognition was in the Thesis Digitisation project embarked upon by the agency for the creation of institutional research repositories.
He quoted the President of NCS, Prof. Adesina Sodiya during the award ceremony said that the advocacy efforts of NCS was geared towards achieving sustainable development in the country.
Sodiya said this would be incomplete without recognition of excellence and exceptional professionals who had made significant impact in the industry; adding that those conferred with different categories of awards were carefully selected.
He assured that NCS as the national platform for the advancement of information technology practice in Nigeria would continue to strive for greater heights.
Also speaking at the ceremony, the Executive Secretary of TETFund, Sonny Echono, expressed profound appreciation to NCS for the award, stating that the fund remained committed to supporting the development of ICT across public tertiary educational institutions in the country.
Echono described ICT as one of the fastest growing sectors in the country and proof of this was the steady growth in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the last seven years which was tied to ICT development.
The Executive Secretary also emphasised that ICT was the hub of the youth and therefore could be used as a tool to expose young people to educational opportunities and other opportunities for growth internationally.
“Nigeria having one of the largest growing youth populations in the world, there is room for national development through technological advancement if there is a will to invest in the development of the sector,” he said.
Echono reiterated the fund’s commitment to the development of ICT through investment in research programmes geared towards technological advancement and ultimately national development.
He said this would be carried out through many streams such as providing ICT training for teaching and non-teaching staff of public tertiary educational institutions under the Academic Staff Training and Development and ICT Intervention programmes for increased digital literacy and overall efficiency.
Also, the Director-General, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Abdullahi, who spoke through Video Conferencing platform, stated that Information Technology had contributed immensely to the development of the country through various government policy implementations.
Abdullahi said that Nigeria could achieve economic prosperity and become a developed nation through investment in ICT development.
Other awardee is the Governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu who won the IT Governor of the Year. (NAN)
