By Fortune Eromosele

The Nigerian Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, a division of the Nigerian Society of Engineers, has agreed to increase the number and frequency of training of its members nationwide, to deepen their capacity and position them to make meaningful contributions to the growth of the power sector and other critical sectors of the Nigerian economy.

Speaking during his inauguration as the seventh Chairman of the Nigerian Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, Mr. Ikechukwu Amalu, added that the institute would commence a new programme, tagged international industrial visit, aimed at knowledge sharing, technology transfer and capacity building of its members.

He noted that over the years, the institute had conducted a maximum of three trainings for its members every year, adding that henceforth, the trainings would be increased to a minimum of five per annum.

He noted that the ability of new graduates to effectively perform in the industry had been a source of concern for the engineering bodies, stating that these trainings would help bridge the gaps and ensure the professional development of engineers.

He said, “One of the key things we target is professional development for engineers. The other one is welfare of members. But in professional developments we have embarked on a lot of training for our engineers.

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Over the years, we conduct at least three local or national trainings every year, but for my tenure we have agreed to have at least four to five every year.

That will help electrical and electronics engineers to build themselves. Because questions of whether an engineer is fully due to enter the field to practice engineering post graduation gives engineers a sense of worry.

“We also do professional development through career development for the younger ones. We will do a lot of school career talks, so we do not loose the ones that are coming after us.

“For the first time we are going to have an international industrial visit, because we have not gone international before to visit other companies outside Nigeria to leverage on their advancement in technology. This is coming in June this year”.

Also speaking, Mr. Bako Wakil, Director Technical Standards and Network Integrity of the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, in his keynote address, highlighted the important role advancement in communication technologies could play in addressing certain issues militating against the country.

For instance, he stated that the deployment of 5G mobile network, otherwise known as 5th Generation network, was a necessity in tackling all forms of crimes in the country, adding that 5G as an emerging technology, would have an effect in the reduction of crime rate in the coming years.

According to him, 5G will enhance deployment of security cameras, the use of artificial intelligence and big data, which in all ramifications can tackle insecurity.

Wakil highlighted that countries like Korea and China had aready deployed the system, noting, however, that it might take Africa longer time to begin to use the technology.

He said, “What I regard as a necessity for tackling insecurity I consider that as 5G. It is one of the advanced or emerging communications technologies that are up.

“Nearly every ten years a new technology emerges and as we speak today, the work for 6G has already started. At the International Telecommunications Union, ITU, we call it network 2030, because 5G is considered as IMT 2020. That is, it is this year that commercial deployment is about to start around the world.

“Although, already by late last year we have already started experiencing commercial deployment particularly in Korea and some few countries around the world. But the idea of 5G commercial deployment is expected to start as from this year. And for us in Africa, probably, ir might take even longer time, we may not see 5G in our domain this year. However, this is the beginning.

“There will be good business pace carried out in the 5G and of course, it will put pressure on today’s 4G network in terms of pricing, because 5G is fast and will probably bring down data prices of the 4G.

“There will be greater device density and improved wireless connections. Enhanced mobile broadband. What that means is you could have a movie that you could watch for 4 hours and download under 3 seconds. That much capacity.”

Vanguard News Nigeria.