MANY schools and communities where the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC,  through its Universal Service Provision Fund, had set up resource and school knowledge centres have not put them to adequate use and this is affecting internet penetration in rural areas.

Professor Umar Danbatta, chief executive officer of NCC, who  stated this, yesterday, in Calabar, Cross Rivers State,  at the close of a two-day  stakeholders  workshop on Information and Communications Technology Utilisation and Sustainability,  said  many schools where knowledge  centres are set up lock up the facilities and they are not putting the places to use while in some communities, thieves and vandals frequently  invade the  ICT centres  and cart away the equipment.

He said that the idea was not to set up the knowledge centres for the communities and schools to own as property but to put them to good use so that people can acquire the necessary knowledge and skills on the use of internet.

“We spend a lot of money replacing stolen and vandalised equipment in rural communities where we set up resource   centres  to bring ICT close to everyone but some people have formed the habit of stealing the equipment while schools simply lock up their knowledge centres without putting them to use,” Danbatta stated.  – Vanguard

– Sept. 29, 2017 @ 4:55 GMT /