The special adviser (SA) to the governor on Information and Communication Technology, Mr. Odo Effiong, has said that Senator Imoke has granted approval for the provision of 250 schools in the state with information technology facilities to equip the students with the prerequisite knowledge that would make them compliant to the evolving technological standards.
Effiong said schools that cut across the state would be equipped with computers, internet facilities backed by steady power supply supplied by solar power machines and batteries. The SA, who was briefing journalists in Calabar as part of the ministry and agencies parley with the media on their activities during the year said, this would ensure that students who pass out of schools in the state would be equipped with the prerequisite information technology skills comparable with their counterparts in other parts of the world.
He stated that information and communication technology, as a major driver of growth should be inculcated in the youths as a prime component of education. The SA said the state has a network infrastructure, which links all the ministries and agencies in the state through internet connectivity.
“Through fibre back internet connectivity, all the ministries and agencies of the state located in Calabar, beginning from the Cross River University of Technology to the Ministry of Works is linked,” he said.
He revealed that through the information technology network, most activities in the Accountant General Office are done through i-technology.
The SA said, over a thousand civil servants in the state are trained in information technology yearly and soon, the training would be extended to the local governments, where plans are afoot to set up resource centres.
Mr. Odo said a software conference has been planned in conjunction with the Institute of Soft Ware Professionals of Nigeria to hold at the Tinapa Leisure and Business Resort in Calabar in the last weekend of August.
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