Tuesday, October 7, 2025
24.2 C
Lagos

Nigeria Showcases Digital Social Investments at APRA 2024

 Various digital social investments in Nigeria, through the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) were on showcase at the just-concluded 35th annual conference of the African Public Relations Association (APRA) in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.

Through a presentation by the Head of Media Management Relations at the NCC, Dr. Omoniyi Ibietan, who later emerged as the Secretary-General of APRA after an election at the event which took place from 13th to 17th May, 2024, participants had a glean into some of the digital social investments and infrastructure expansion happening in Nigeria, through regulatory efficiency of the Commission.

In his presentation with the title: “Digital Inclusion as Arbiter of Accessible PR: A Case of the Nigerian Communications Commission,” Ibietan highlighted some 36 initiatives of the Commission within and beyond its immediate regulatory mandate, implemented to promote infrastructure expansion, support SMEs, empower educational institutions, advance innovation and promote digital up-skilling of Nigerian youths.

These include the Advanced Digital Awareness Programme for Tertiary Institutions (ADAPTI); Campus Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIEP) programme; e-PAD project for 232 institutions; Digital Appreciation Project (DAP) for 247 secondary schools; Digital Literacy Training for Teachers (DLT); Digital Integration Programme (DIP) for MSMEs; and the E-Accessibility programme targeted at persons with disabilities.

Others include the Nigerian Girls Can Code Competition; the Build A-Thon, aimed at enabling young persons to pitch and enhance their skills and new learning experience; Tertiary Institutions Digital Centre (TIDC) for 250 institutions; 2,291 Digital Nigeria Centers (DNC) online/offline educational resources; Local Application and Content Deployment programme; and up to 72 Rural Broadband Initiative projects, among others.

According to him, the NCC through its component special purpose vehicle, the Universal Service Provision Fund (USPF) has undertaken several digital infrastructure projects, programmes and collaborative activities with stakeholders.

“These interventions have caused a shift in digital literacy, fundamentally shrank the digital divide and opened the floodgates of participation in political, economic and social processes, and enabled accessible digital public relations in Nigeria,” he said.

While over 20 papers were presented at the APRA Conference to expound its thematic focus of “One Africa, One Voice: Bridging Africa’s Communication Divide”, Ibietan’s paper was the only presentation that showcased digital infrastructure investments by any African country, even though many papers advocated the centrality of adequate broadband infrastructure in enhancing digital culture on the continent.

Ibietan emphasised that digital inclusion is the ability of individuals and groups to access and fully participate in the digital society, particularly in the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) such as the internet, computers, and mobile devices.

He submitted that digital inclusion encompasses not only access to digital technologies but also the skills, knowledge, and resources needed to effectively utilise them.

He also emphasised that the phenomenon of digital inclusion is desirable for economies that aspire to grow and develop in remarkable and measurable sense.

He said: “This is because digital inclusion promotes social and economic opportunities, enhances civic engagement and participation, supports education and lifelong learning, fosters digital literacy and skills development, encourages innovation and entrepreneurship, and helps to bridge the digital divide and reduce inequalities.”

He referenced that the COVID-19 pandemic and its fallouts proved the significance of digital infrastructure to the economy.

Luckily, he said: “Nigeria’s investment in broadband infrastructure partly explained why the nation was able to cope with the outbreak of the COVID-19 virus because availability of digital infrastructure helped individuals, businesses and the government to migrate their social and economic activities to digital platforms in order to mitigate the devastating effect of the Pandemic.”

He recommended constant and seamless communication among stakeholders to ensure efficiency in the management and proper harvest of derivable benefits social investment and infrastructural projects.

spot_img
spot_img
spot_img

Hot this week

Ecobank Nigeria Launches Upgraded Mobile App for Faster, Smarter Banking Experience

Ecobank Nigeria, a subsidiary of the leading pan-African banking...

Ortom, NOA DG, Others to Feature as Panelists at GOCOP 2025 Conference

The Guild of Corporate Online Publishers (GOCOP) has announced...

AIICO Celebrates Retiring Employees: Honouring Decades of Service with Gratitude

Left - right: Adeleke Adeshina (rtd), Lanre Oladehinde (rtd.),...

Nigeria’s Banking Woes: How One South African Bank Outvalues an Entire Industry

It is a sobering reality that one South African...

Topics

2022 Nigeria DigitalSENSE Forum Set for June 9

The 2022 Nigeria DigitalSENSE Africa Forum (NDSF) on Internet...

Odimegwu Onwumere Wins 2018 Pan African Re/Insurance Journalism Award

Odimegwu Onwuwere, a journalist with Nigeria’s Africa Prime News...

Interswitch Kicks Off 20th Anniversary, Unveils #NeverStop Brand Campaign

To herald its 20th anniversary commemoration, Interswitch has launched...

Mark Zuckerberg: The Future of Facebook is Telepathy

Mark Zuckerberg just dropped a big clue about Facebook's future. The social network's founder and CEO believes that one day, we'll be able to share our thoughts directly -- brain to brain --using technology. "You'll just be able to think of something and your friends will immediately be able to experience it too if you'd like," Zuckerberg said. "This would be the ultimate communication technology." He made his comments during a public Q&A session on hisFacebook (FB, Tech30) page on Tuesday afternoon. The response was addressed to a user who asked about Facebook's long-term plans. In the past decade, the company has expanded the way users communicate on the platform. First there were plain profile pages. Next came comments, and then the Wall, Likes, Groups and News Feed.

19 Firms Bid for Afam Power, Yola DISCO

Afam Power Plant Nineteen (19) firms have indicated interest to...

Heirs Insurance Group’s Niyi Onifade Elected to Governing Council of NIA

Mr. Niyi Onifade, Managing Director/CEO, Heirs Life Assurance, a...

NCRIB to Partner NAIPCO on Insurance Growth

The Nigerian Council of Registered Insurance Brokers (NCRIB) and...

Universal Insurance: N4.1bn Income, N796m Profit, N348m Claims in H1 2022

Universal Insurance Plc, Nigeria’s foremost insurance company, has achieved...
spot_img

Related Articles

Popular Categories

spot_imgspot_img