13 Nigerian Universities get NCC’s N173m Research Grant

Thirteen Nigerian universities have grabbed the 2021 Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) Information Communications Technology (ICT) based research grant, worth over N173 million.

This was as it also awarded N60 million endowment of Professorial Chairs to the University of Port Harcourt, Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, and the Federal University of Technology, Minna.

The NCC’s Executive Vice Chairman (EVC), Prof. Umar Danbatta disclosed this in Abuja on Thursday day, at a ceremony organized to present the awardees’ symbolic cheques.

Danbatta stated that the Telecommunications-Based Research Innovations grant and Professorial Chair endowment were designed to encourage academia and also spur the creation of local content for the telecommunications industry in Nigeria.

He said: “Warm congratulations to the three beneficiaries of the 2021 Professorial Chair Endowment as well as the13 successful research awardees. Today, the Commission is awarding a total sum of N172,532,040 for these 13 research projects and N60 million as endowments to the three universities.

“I am indeed pleased to personally hand over the award letters to the Lead Researchers of the beneficiaries of the Research Grants and the dummy cheques for the sum of N20 million only to the Vice-Chancellors of the three universities that are benefitting from the Professorial Chair endowment.

“Each university would be required to sign the Memorandum of Understanding that would guide the programs. With these awards and endowments, the Commission would have provided more than N660 million to Nigerian tertiary institutions for Information and Communications Technology (ICT) focused research innovations,” he added.

Also speaking, the Head, of Research and Development Department of NCC,  Kelechi Nwankwo noted that the grant and the Professorial Chair endowment were in line with the Strategic Management Plan ( 2020-2024).