FRSC WINS BIG AT NIGERIA TECHNOLOGY AWARDS

The Federal Road Safety Corps, FRSC, has again proved its leading position as a public institution with the most robust base for use of technology in Nigeria, as it carted away two distinctive awards at the recently
organised Nigeria Technology Awards, NITA, held in Lagos.
The FRSC got the Best use of technology award in government category, while its innovativeness in the new driver’s licence got it the Award of Technology Project of the Year 2015 also in government category.
According to Bisi Kazeem, Head, Media Relations and Strategy, FRSC, these two awards made the FRSC a clear leader in the use of technology tools among government owned agencies in the country. According to the organisers of the event, the Nigeria Technology Awards is organised to recognise and reward technology entrepreneurs, innovators, inventors, academicians and policy makers (Government) in Nigeria. It further stated that the award is aimed at building a large scale and internationally recognised technology awards in Nigeria.
“The objective of the Award is to promote and commend excellence achievements to which Nigeria technology professionals and organisations contribute towards building a sustainable economy using technology, and to encourage local practitioners to develop innovative and creative technology solutions, which will uplift the image of Nigeria both locally and internationally,” it stated.
The Awards which were in five categories of Technology best; Technology Services/Business; Telecom; Banking and Government, saw FRSC carting away prime positions in two of the five categories, which proved its distinctive use of technology among government institutions in the country.
“This is a reward for excellence and sustained investments in the use of technology by an organisation that has continued to distinguish itself in using technology to tackle its traffic management challenges in the country,” one of the organisers noted.
The Corps Marshal of the FRSC, Boboye Oyeyemi while reacting to the wave of awards coming on the way of the FRSC in the recent technology competitions held across the country, expressed satisfaction with the development, saying the recognitions represent the realities of what is happening in the Corps in its determination to use technology to resolve some of the traffic management challenges facing the country. According to him, FRSC was built on modernist values that laid solid foundation for its sustained technology-based solutions.
“We have about 500 V-sats located in our commands across the country, all of which are linked to the National Headquarters at Abuja to give our daily operations real time advantage,” he stated.
“By that number, it is evident that FRSC has one of the largest V-sat commotions among all the government agencies in the country, and that gives us the capacity to monitor our daily field operations, rescue exercises and ensure prompt response to emergencies within 15 to 20 minutes response time as the case may be.
“Today, our Call Centre operates on 24 hourly basis, while our patrol cars, tow trucks and ambulances are tracked on our dashboard. These make it possible for our operators to look at the nearest patrol vehicles to any reported crash scenes, congestion or other emergencies in any part of the country through our national emergency line: 122,” he further stated.
“The same thing applies to the innovations we have introduced in the new driver’s licence, which make it impossible for the licences to be either forged or duplicated, as the printing of the permanent copies of all the licences are gated in such a way that it prevents duplicity and ensure authenticity of the biometric data of the holders,” Mr. Oyeyemi added.
The Corps Marshal further reiterated the commitment of his management to greater investments in information and communication technology, saying that is where the world is going, and FRSC cannot afford to be left behind.
In his remarks at the occasion, the President of the Nigeria Internet Registration Association, Sunday Afolayan, urged parents to teach their wards the right way in view of the fact that the world is drifting towards the corridor of technology, saying technology has come to stay.
The Corps Marshal was represented at the occasion by the Zonal Commanding Officer in charge of Zone 2 Lagos, Assistant Corps Marshal Nseobong Akpabio.