The Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) has been awarded the ICT Gold Merit Award by the Nigeria Computer Society (NCS) in recognition of the Fund’s contributions to Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in the country.
It was in recognition of the Thesis Digitization Project embarked upon by the agency for the creation of institutional research repositories.
The award was presented to the Fund at the 2022 National Information Technology Merit Award (NITMA) held recently in Lagos, a statement by Abdulmumin Oniyangi, the acting Director, Public Affairs at TETFund, said.
According to the statement, Prof.Adesina Sodiya, the President of NCS, said NITMA is an event organized by the Society to recognize and celebrate excellence and commitment in Information Technology (IT) profession.
Prof Sodiya further stated that the advocacy efforts of NCS, which is geared towards achieving sustainable development in the country, will be incomplete without recognition of excellence and exceptional professionals who have made a significant impact in the industry, adding that those conferred with different categories of awards were carefully selected.
He assured that NCS, as the national platform for advancing Information Technology practice in Nigeria, will continue to strive for greater heights.
Arc. Sonny Echono, the Executive Secretary of TETFund, the statement expressed profound appreciation to NCS for the award, the statement said.
He added that the Fund remains committed to supporting the development of ICT across public tertiary educational institutions in the country.
Arc. Echono described ICT as one of the fastest-growing sectors in the country, and proof of this is the steady growth in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the last seven years which is tied to ICT development.
He emphasized that ICT is the hub of the youth and, therefore, could be used as a tool to expose young people to international educational opportunities and other growth opportunities.
He added that with Nigeria having one of the largest growing youth populations in the world, there is room for national development through technological advancement if there is a will to invest in the sector’s development.
Arc Echono reiterated the Fund’s commitment to developing ICT through investment in research programmes geared towards technological advancement and, ultimately, national development.
This, he said, will be carried out through many streams, such as providing ICT training for teaching and non-teaching staff of public tertiary educational institutions under the Academic Staff Training and Development and ICT Intervention programmes for increased digital literacy and overall efficiency.
In his message at the event, the Director-General National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), Kashifu Inuwa Abdullahi, who spoke through a Video Conferencing platform, stated that Information Technology had contributed immensely to the development of the country through various government policy implementations, adding that Nigeria could achieve economic prosperity and become a developed nation through investment in ICT development.
