Dr. Isa Pantami, Nigeria’s Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, has announced the ministry’s plans to establish one Emergency Communications Centre (ECC) in each state of the federation by the year 2022. The minister disclosed this on 1st June during the Batch 10 Launching of the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS) projects in Abuja.
According to Pantami, “In less than two years, we have commissioned around 23 emergency communications centres all over the country and we have around 13 underway. It is our plan to have at least one ECC in every state of the federation by 2022.”
“These centres are very important; it is a toll-free number and if you make a call nothing will be deducted from your mobile account. This is to make it easier for all citizens to patronize; and which will go a long way to support citizens in emergency cases, security situations,” he added.
Also, while speaking on the Digital Economy Centre, DEC, the minister said the virtual engagements had saved cost for the Federal Government, hence the money deployed to other areas of governance.
According to him, “The DEC will serve as a capacity Building Centre to enable the promotion of knowledge-based economic growth, an avenue for creating jobs and providing access to information, knowledge, and government enabled digital services for rural communities.”
“The centre is an avenue for stimulating economic growth by creating new products, increasing productivity, and promoting new commercial and administrative methods.”
He said the ECC project was set up to promote and enhance public safety through the use of the 112 number, designated as the Universal Safety and Emergency Assistance Number, for telephone services generally.
The minister added that “It will encourage and facilitate the prompt deployment of a seamless, ubiquitous and reliable end-to-end infrastructure for emergency communications needs.”
In a statement on its website, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC)says “The Emergency Communications Centres (ECC) Project is intended to bridge the communication gap between the distressed and emergency response agencies in the country. NCC says all telecom operators will be mandated to route emergency calls through the dedicated three-digit toll-free number, 112, from each state to the emergency centre within that state. The operators, who are resident in the ECC, will then process the distress call and contact the relevant Emergency Response Agency (e.g. Fire Service, Police, FRSC, Ambulance, etc.) whose primary duty is to handle the case.