NCDMB’s Akwa-Ibom ICT Centre gets accreditation, begins training

The Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Centre built by the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB at the Community Secondary Grammar School, Ebughu, Mbo Local Government Area in Akwa Ibom State has been granted provisional accreditation by the Computer Professionals Registration Council of Nigeria (CPN).

The accreditation has paved the way for students trained at the centre to be certified with Computer Appreciation Certificates at the end of their courses.

The General Manager, Corporate Communications and Zonal Coordination Division, NCDMB, Dr. Ginah O. Ginah stated this on Friday at the commencement of a training programme for students of the school on computer appreciation. He affirmed that the Board’s efforts to establish the ICT centre and get it certified was in furtherance of its mandate to build human and infrastructural capacities in the oil and gas industry.

Ginah explained that “the purpose of this initiative is to catch them young. We believe that by introducing young students to computer education they will pick up fast and use the knowledge to develop in-country capacities in the oil and gas industry in years to come.”

He informed that training programmes at the ICT Centre will run for six months while the contract for computer instructions and maintenance of the facility is for one year.

The ICT Centre was commissioned by the Board in November 2017  and is fully equipped with state of the art desktop computers, projector, printer and photocopier, all powered by a generating set with a backup inverter, the intent being to enhance the computer literacy of secondary schools students in the Niger Delta region.

The Principal of the School, Pastor Eka Etuk thanked the Board for establishing the ICT Centre and securing accreditation for it. He expressed hope that the centre would make the students conversant with the use of computers which had become a critical skill since the introduction of Computer Based Tests (CBT) by the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB). He also pleaded with the Board to replicate similar centres in other rural communities across the country.