BY DANIEL IDONOR

ABUJA-THE Federal Executive Council, FEC, Wednesday, approved the provision of Information Communication Technology, ICT, centres in 387 secondary schools, across the country, for over N6.4 billion.

Minister of Information, Mr. Labaran Maku, said this at the end of FEC session, chaired by President Goodluck Jonathan.

He said Minister of Communication Technology came to the Council seeking approval for the award of contracts for the deployment of 100 classmate personal computers, PCs, for students, two laptops for teachers for teaching purposes, two printers, one unit of server, and broadband internet connections with a year guaranteed bandwidth payment.

He added that there was also provision of alternative power supply using 5KVA solar-power to power the facility, the refurbishment and securing the facility storage room, provision of wireless mesh and charging platform for each of the selected 387 schools, including nine for each of the state, three in FCT and additional 10 in each geo-political zone.

He said council approved the request to create a generation of Nigerians with a broad base of theoretical and practical knowledge of ICT on which they can leverage when they step into the labour market, in the cost of N16.6 million and a total cost of N6.4 billion with a completion period of 36 weeks each.

The Minister of Communication Technology, Mrs Omobola Johnson, said the funding is coming from the Universal Service Provision Fund, USPF, which is a percentage of the revenue of the GSM telecoms company.

She said: “The Communication Act of the USPF which gets contributions from telecom companies and other businesses in that sector so that services can be extended to under served and unserved areas in Nigeria.”