Nigeria may soon have its first ICT University. The Minister of Communications, Mr Adebayo Shittu dropped the hint exclusively to Hi-Tech when he visited the corporate headquarters of Vanguard media limited, recently in Lagos.

According to the minister of communication, it became imperative after evaluating the level of infrastructure and facilities at the Digital Bridge Institute, DBI, located in Oshodi, Lagos.

He noted that the DBI, which is currently a Nigerian International Centre for Information and Communications Studies, could be turned into a full-blown ICT university since such centres now lack patronage.

Mr Shittu said that after his tour of the facilities, it became obvious to him that the country was sitting on gold mine; describing the facilities he saw as low hanging technology fruits that needed exploiting.

"The centre will be converted to ICT University where people will be trained in the Information Communication Technology development. ICT goes beyond Computer as a course. There is hidden treasure in the DBI which government is not exploiting.”

The Minister also promised to have a meeting with the Nigerian mobile operators on issues bordering on drop calls, unsolicited text messages, exploitative data bundle pricing among others.

Expressing frustration at several complaints from scores of telecoms consumers on dropped calls and other network related issues, the Minister revealed that his Ministry might have to resort to sanctions on mobile operators who fail to address these issues.

For him, broadband infrastructure is key to continued sustenance of the economy and so; his Ministry will engage the operators to invest on broadband development in the country.