News
Pursuant to its determination to sustain the momentum in the strides achieved during the first year of the Strategic Management Plan (SMP) 2013 – 2017, the Board and Management of USPF took a break in December 2014 from the office environment to conduct a strategic retreat.
It was an opportunity to review its scorecard in the first 20 months of SMP 2013 – 2017 and to agree on action points for the next implementation period within the context of global trends in Universal Access and Universal Service. In line with the theme of the retreat “Sustaining the Vision”, the Board and Management affirmed the validity of current projects and identified opportunities that could provide additional impetus for higher performance in the coming years.
It was a night of heartfelt encomiums recently when three erstwhile USP Board members were hosted to a farewell dinner in appreciation of their invaluable services while they served on the Board.
The erstwhile Board members, Engr. Gbenga Adegun, Engr. John Ayodele and Hajia Binta Bello represented the National Planning Commission, Ministry of Communication Technology and Ministry of Finance respectively.
The USPF achieved another notable landmark, when in December 2014, the first of its 16 University Inter Campus Connectivity (UnICC) projects was commissioned at the University of Lagos.
The UnICC is one of the projects being implemented to extend ICT infrastructure and services to tertiary institutions. It complements the NgREN project and represents a cross-agency and cross Ministerial collaborative effort between the USPF and National Universities Commission on one hand, and the Ministries of Communication Technology and Education on the other.
Following the conclusion of its Access Gap study, the USPF has launched 207 clusters representing areas in Nigeria where telecommunication services have not covered or poorly covered.
At a well-attended Industry Stakeholder Forum organised in Lagos, the Chairman of the USP Board and Minister of Communication Technology, Dr. (Mrs) Omobola Johnson explained that the clusters were the result of a study carried out to identify underserved and unserved areas in order to assist the USPF fulfil its statutory mandate of stimulating the deployment and utilization of ICT services in those areas and achieve the goals set in the Strategic Management Plan 2013 - 2017.
The USPF is working with two firms in the ICT industry to organize a "Hackathon" event, leveraging on the recently launched Clusters of ICT Gap. The event is to promote the development of mobile apps that can be deployed to drive the usage of ICT in unserved and underserved communities and groups.
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