The Senate has begun the legislative process towards the establishment of the Institute of Information and Communication Technology in Uga, Anambra State.
A bill to that effect sponsored by Senator Ifeanyi Ubah (YPP Anambra South), which was read for the first time on Tuesday, July 7, 2020, passed second reading yesterday on the floor of the upper legislative chamber.
In his lead debate on the piece of legislation, he said “the institute, when established will carry out scientific and applied research in the areas of modern information technology application to optimize processes and decision support systems.”
Besides, the lawmaker said the institute would provide dynamic learning infrastructure with quality education through rigorous teaching and research methodologies in ICT, adding that it would provide academic programmes with quality curricula focus to forge professionals, experts and scholars in the field of ICT, electronics, software engineering and telemedicine.
Senator Ubah further explained that the institute if established will foster values amongst its academia, undergraduates and graduate scholars, and ensure a place of pride for our teeming youths in the world of learning.
The Bill, he stressed, “seeks to provide platforms for modelling, design and control of processes and systems, create single and multi-objective optimization models, group decision-making models, desktop and web-based software systems for information processing, optimization and decision support”.
The lawmaker also noted that “technology is extremely important in the workplace as a means of communication, today businesses rely on it heavily.”
“ICT is the trending best practice the world over, and an institute specially designated for this purpose should be a welcome development,” he stressed.
In his contribution, Senator Smart Adeyemi (APC Kogi West), sought the support of the Senate for the bill and called for the establishment of the institute in all the six geopolitical zones of the country.
Also, Senator Binos Yaroe (APC Adamawa South), noted that education remains the bedrock of development of any nation and therefore stressed the need for the government to venture into areas capable of generating employment opportunities and revenues like the ICT and mining, among others into the country.
