31-man MIT delegation @ DBI, seeks partnership

A 31-member delegation from the renowned Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in United States, weekend, paid a one-day visit to the Digital Bridge Institute (DBI), Abuja.

The team which was received on arrival at DBI by its chief executive, Dr. Olu Ogunfemi, was accompanied by the Executive Vice Chairman (EVC) of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Dr. Ernest Ndukwe and some senior members of staff at DBI, directors as well as commissioners from NCC.

DBI, which is approaching its two-year is an initiative by NCC to curb lack of capacity building for the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in the country and beyond.

Dr. Ogunfemi who disclosed the visit to newsmen in Lagos, said though the delegates were led by a Nigerian in diaspora based in United States, whose name he did not disclose, the essence was basically to find areas of co-operation between the two institutes.

Although he noted the partnership would likely toe the path of previous deals with the likes of George Washington University (GWU), Montreal Institute of Telecommunications and University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN).

“There are other plans which are now on the pipeline,” he said.

Dr. Ogunfemi also said, DBI believes in pooling of resources, stressing that it would help to improve the students of DBI and Nigerians expertise in ICT generally.

The delegate, he said, were conducted round DBI premises to see for themselves what the institute is doing and even held some practical sessions before their departure.

DBI an initiative of NCC, is part of a larger effort by NCC to practically sustain and drive the growth trends of the nation’s telecom industry.

ITRealms Online recollects that soon after the advent of Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), there was a shortage of qualified technical and managerial man-power to support the rapidly growing telecommunications industry.