Good morning, distinguished guests, colleagues, and participants,
It is with great pleasure and enthusiasm that I welcome you to this pivotal workshop focused on Adoption, Utilization, and Sustainability of Information Communication Technology (ICT) in the rural, unserved and underserved areas of the Country. Today, we embark on a journey that is not just about implementing new technologies or practices, but about fostering a mindset of innovation and responsibility that will shape the future of our teeming youths.
The Universal Service Provision Fund (USPF) as the agency of the Federal Government of Nigeria is responsible for promoting greater social equity and inclusion for the people of Nigeria; contribute to national economic, social, and cultural development of Nigeria in the rural, unserved and underserved areas in Nigeria. The achievement of this mandate substantially contributes to the Mr. President’s Eight Priority Areas, Hon. Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy Strategic Blueprint and the Executive Vice Chairman of the Nigerian Communications Commission’s Strategic Focus Areas.
In achieving our vision of “Equitable and Sustainable ICT Access for All”, i.e. widespread availability of ICT infrastructure and services, we made tremendous efforts to address the three aspects of Universal Service Provision (Availability, Accessibility and Affordability) through programmes that extend ICT infrastructures to unserved and underserved areas and groups. These Programmes and Projects include Accelerated Mobile Phone Expansion Programme (AMPEP), Backbone Transmission Infrastructure (BTRAIN), Rural Broadband Initiative (RUBI), Digital Nigeria Centre (DNC), Community Resource Centre (CRC), E-Library, E-Health, E-Accessibility, Universities Inter-Campus Connectivity (UnICC) amongst others.
The programmes implemented by the USPF contributes to reduction in the Country’s Digital Poverty status. Digital Poverty is the lack of means with which to access ICTs, lack of skills to use ICTs and inadequate information about the usefulness of ICTs.
As part of efforts to achieve reduction in Digital Poverty, the ICT Utilization and Sustainability Project has been designed to demonstrate the opportunities and strategies for communities, Local entrepreneurs, institutions including cooperatives, to share in the gains and benefits of an ICT- enabled society through the experiences of various Community ICT Centre models around the world.
The two-day workshop which is the fourth edition since inception of this initiative, will be made up of various sessions that will provide valuable lessons, as well as future directions for the USPF -supported Community Resource Centre (CRC) and Digital Nigeria Centres (DNC) programme in furtherance of the development targets of the Government.
The workshop for the Northern Zone was held on July 1 – 2, 2024 in Kano State and it was a huge success considering the large number of participants and their meaningful and intelligent suggestions towards sustaining the USPF Projects. Nothing less is expected from the one we are having here in Ibadan considering the number and caliber of participants here in attendance.
For the sake of emphasis, we are all aware of the prevailing economic conditions that is plaguing the whole world, Nigeria inclusive. It is therefore important that beneficiaries of our intervention should take the bull by the horn to ensure that projects at their domain are well protected, used for the intended purpose and sustained for as long as possible.
The intention of USPF is to continue to pursue our mandate to make ICTs available, accessible and affordable in the rural, unserved and underserved areas in Nigeria. On this note, I welcome you all to this workshop and I am confident that your time here will contribute to achieving the objectives of the CRC and DNC programme in a sustainable manner.
Thank you.