The House of Representatives has commended the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, on the implementation of the Digital Awareness Programmes, DAP, and the Emergency Communications Centre, ECC, projects across the country, describing the projects  as major citizen empowerment programmes whose impact will be felt across the nation and beyond.

Chairman, House Committee on Communications, Honourable Oyetunde Ojo, who lauded the Executive Vice Chairman of the Commission, Dr. Eugene Juwah for his purposeful leadership of the Commission during the Commissioning of DAP at Erijiyan Government High School in Ekiti State, said the project is also an indication of how the Commission has faithfully utilized its budget, especially at this period when the availability of physical infrastructures has become the basic criteria for performance measurement.

Hon. Ojo while Commissioning the DAP at Erijiyan Government High School, said the impact of this project, even in rural Nigeria, can easily be felt and such, conveys the appreciation of government, and the community to NCC for investing in the future of their youth in an area that is very crucial to the development of the Nigerian nation.

In support of the Commission, he also pledged to pay for the bandwidth fees for the school for the next three years after the expiration of the initial payment by the NCC, to ensure that the school does not experience any down time on its Internet connection in the next four years.

Ojo also inspected the Emergency Communications Centre under construction in Ado Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital.

Executive Vice Chairman of the NCC, Dr. Eugene Juwah, who was represented by a Commissioner of the NCC, Mrs. Biodun Olujimi, said more than 222 higher institutions across the nation have so far benefitted from DAP while another programme called Wireless Cloud has yet another beneficiary 93 higher institutions of learning.

“DAP is part of the major objectives of the Commission to achieve universal access for ICT. Having conquered the voice telephony, the area of data has become our major focus at the NCC. DAP, and the related programmes, are some of the ways that the Commission has strived to key the Nigerian youth into accelerated universal access. By making Internet services available to the younger generation, we are helping to build the bridge to connect this generation to the next”, he said.