technology with a view to ensuring the maintenance, and eventually the production of computers.
4.2.2 Information Technology Programme at the Tertiary Level
University Level
Since 1962 when the National Univesities Commission (NUC) was set up following the recommendation of Ashby Commission, the NUC has been supervising and co-ordinating the
activities of all the universities in Nigeria. The Commission has played a major role in the success of the Computer Literacy Programme in the universities.
It has provided guidelines relating to the minimum hardware and software environment for the Universities to enable them effectively pursue the computer literacy programme. Additionally, the Commission has been supporting the development of curricula and programmes in the universities especially the new degree programmes in computer science and engineering covering the Bachelors, Masters and Doctorate degrees.
The computer literacy programmes at the university level have over the years been directed at:
• establishing and entrenching a computer culture that permeates all activities in the University;
• producing university graduates who are considered computer literates irrespective of their course of studies or major disciplines;
• producing Computer Science and Engineering graduates who constitute the core of professionals in the practice and advancement of Computer Technology;
• conducting research and developing hardware, firmware, software, and course-ware that will enable the country to attain the latest Computer Technology capability; and
• ensuring the provision of the manpower and other resources required to meet the broader objectives of computer literacy at the tertiary, secondary and primary levels of education, and at the societal level.
4.2.3 Polytechnic and Colleges of Education Level
Apart from the NUC there is also the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) which has statutory responsibility for ensuring standards of Education in Polytechnics and Technical Colleges, and also in co-ordinating the development, management and funding of Federal Polytechnics and Federal Technical Colleges. Within this general framework, the NBTE has had the following specific roles to play in the introduction of Computer Education in the institutions under its jurisdiction;
• integrating the curriculum for computer literacy at the secondary and tertiary levels, into the programmes of Polytechnics and Technical Colleges nation-wide.
• overseeing the development of Computer Education programmes at the Colleges of Education and Polytechnics.
• monitoring the polytechnics and Federal Colleges of Education (Technical) to ensure that they have incorporated tertiary level computer literacy into their general studies programmes, and that they have acquired adequate facilities for this.
• accrediting Computer Studies' programmes at Technical Colleges level.
• developing syllabus for a Higher National Diploma (HND) option in Computer Science and Technology immediately for adoption by Polytechnics, and encourage the programme in Polytechnics.
• reviewing the Polytechnics' Computer Science and Technology programmes periodically.
• promoting and funding adaptive research in the polytechnics for the design, and development of computer hardware, software and firmware, power systems, thin-film technology and printed circuit boards.
• integrating the Management Information System scheme into its Computer Education programme.
• upgrading its in-house Computer capability to a level adequate to the demands of its statutory tasks.
Under the guidance of NBTE, the Polytechnics in Nigeria have been performing a number of informatics role in the country. Such roles include:
• training of technicians and technologists for hardware maintenance, adaptive designs and development.
• training of technicians for software design and development.
• establishing, designing, developing and producing hardware, software and firmware.
• development of thin-film technology application particularly in printed circuit board design and production.
• mounting of courses for technicians and technologists for the various levels of personnel from industry and the community at large.
4.2.4 Establishment of MIS in Nigerian Universities
Management Information System (MIS) was formally introduced into Nigerian Universities
Management systems in 1990 under the auspices of the National Universities Commission (NUC) to deal essentially with students, staff and financial records in the universities, and to provide periodic information reports for all Units within the Universities.
Training needs were identified as realistic ways of meeting the proposal. The areas identified as priorities include:
• Creating general awareness for MIS;
• Computer appreciation;
• Data collection and processing;
• Data interpretation; and
• Computer operations
Each university was requested to set up an MIS Committee with membership specified by the NUC.
The first training assignment of the MIS committee was to organise training for Principal Officers in order to get them personally identified with the project and provide leadership and support. This was to be followed by training of other users in the Registry, Bursary, Library, Academic Planning etc.
For the generality of staff and students, the MIS Committee was mandated to organise sensitisation and popularisation campaigns on MIS, its objectives and benefits.
In all the above, in-house training , using the facilities of the computer centres and/or the computer science department was to be encouraged.
In addition to the above courses, most of the universities, polytechnics and colleges of education operate short-time courses in Wordprocessing, Database Management, Spreadsheet and Statistical analyses leading to awards of in-house certificates and diplomas. At the international level but with the country, other Informatics activities include the establishment of:
4.2.5 Others
1. Centre for Micro-Informatics Maintenance Department of Computer Technology, Yaba College of Technology, Yaba, Lagos, Nigeria.
This Centre was established by the International Governmental Informatics Programme of UNESCO with the main purpose of:
• Providing exposure and training in hardware maintenance
• understanding the modular layout and functional organization of units used in present day architecture
• understanding the use of state-of-the-art test equipment and software diagnostics aids in practical problems acquiring hands-on practical training through direct and inductive tuition.
It organises short-time and advance study internship in information technology and micro-informatics maintenance and training for participants within the West African sub-region,
2. The Centre for Informatics Research and Training was established at the Ogun State University
to:
• facilitate active and meaningful research for development, using computers;
• serve as a centre for short training programmes in the Africa Commonwealth region in the area of FT;
• assist researchers in universities and research institutes as well as practitioners in R & D units of industry to use available resources in the Centre to solve problems and to meet and exchange ideas with professional colleagues and update their knowledge; and
• act as a catalyst for initiating research and training programmes in IT which will eventually benefit the government as well as interested Commonwealth African countries.
3. The Africa Regional Centre for Information Science (ARCIS) started operating in November 1990 at the University of Ibadan. A number of international agencies played important roles in formulating its objectives, organizational structure and programmes. ARCIS addresses itself to African development problems that have demonstrable information services components, with a view to providing both short- and long-term solutions to them.
In pursuance of its objective, ARCIS is involved in the following activities:
• running higher degree programmes in information science (MInfSc, MPhil, PhD);
• providing short-term training and retraining, through seminars and workshops, at different levels of information services;
• providing consultancy services in systems analysis, design and evaluation; database construction and management; information policy formulation and implementation; and solutions to
operational problems in information technology; and
• conducting research on the problems and prospects of information science in the rapid socio-economic development of Africa.
5. Managing Telecommunications: Regulatory and Policy Environment 5.1 Introduction
It is generally accepted that an accessible telecommunications capability is a prerequisite for national economic growth and, therefore, investment in the telecommunications infrastructure is paramount in any society. Those countries that developed their telecommunications services in the private domain of the economy, notably the U.S.A. have demonstrated that communication is big business and highly profitable. High net worth customers are naturally attractive to the telecommunications entrepreneur, but on account of the social benefits of communication, which are central for
interpersonal relations and society's integrity, society has to protect and provide for low density and less affluent users also. In Nigeria there have been at least four National Telecommunication
Development Plans since i960 in which efforts have been made to accord telecommunications some measure of priority at least in financial terms. However, objectives in one plan period were
invariably unaccomplished during that period and hence have to spill-over to the next. In terms of achievements in relation to investment, results lagged behind expectations due to various reasons.
Thus although telecommunication development in Nigeria has followed some pattern, its course was not in accordance with any definite telecommunications policy. It is in order to stem this tide that the present administration, like the previous ones, included among its policy objectives, the
establishment of a national telecommunications policy for Nigeria.
5.2 Domestic Challenges
In 1992, the telecommunications industry in Nigeria received its own dosage of the deregulation elixir in two forms. The first was the commercialisation or corporatization of Nigerian
Telecommunications (NITEL) while the second was the establishment of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the telecommunications industry regulator.
The motivating forces driving the deregulation of telecommunications services in Nigeria include:
• Private consumer and business demand for good quality telecommunications services at affordable prices and competitiveness;
• Need for reduced time for telephone installation and service delivery;
• Diversification and complexity of user needs;
• Advances in technology;
• Demand for improved business efficiency in the face of tight budgets.
• Economic development and job creation;
• The trend worldwide.
In the light of the above, the Nigerian Government's decision to deregulate the telecommunications industry has had positive and far-reaching implications which are expected to provide the needed leverage and act as a catalyst for various forms of business, economic, social and organisational developments.
The strategic implication of the above is that the core areas of public switches and trunks and international services have been reserved for the national operator, NITEL. This is to provide the necessary incentive and cross-subsidy for services to the rural communities and social services. That notwithstanding, and in order not to frustrate private sector participation, government, as a matter of policy, has maintained that the national career -NITEL is required to:
• provide network access and interconnectivity to other licensed operators,
• charge fair and competitive tariffs for such access and interconnectivity.
• concentrate its efforts and resources on core infrastructure development, i.e. the provision of public switches and long distance trunk capacity.