Nigeria’s Emergency Communications Centres (ECC) now employ at least 1200 youths nationwide.
This is what the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) said in a statement signed by the NCC’s Director of Public Affairs, Reuben Muoka.
The commission said that the ECCs, an initiative of the commission, now offer job placements for many Nigerian youth and professionals and informal business activities for people all over the country. This also provides essential emergency response services to the Nigerian public.
“As the ECCs take on more critical roles in providing emergency communications services to the public, they also take on the social and economic responsibility of giving people jobs. Each center has a staff of call agents, facility/IT staff, and administrators. The 27 operating centers nationwide currently offer jobs to more than 1,200 people.
The NCC says more young people will have jobs when the other eight centres are still being built but will be finished by 2024. It also says that the Commission carefully sets the basic salaries of ECC staff to make sure that the jobs at the centres are appealing to Nigerian teenagers and other types of workers.
Also, the emergency communications centres are run by consultants from Nigeria who are hired to take care of the centres’ facilities and operations as a whole.
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About Nigeria’s Emergency Communication Centres
The NCC set up emergency reaction centres called Emergency Communications Centres (ECCs) so Nigerians could report emergencies in real time. This gives the right people the chance to act quickly when an emergency happens. Nigerians can call a toll-free number, 112, which is like 911 and can be used to report these kinds of emergencies.
They work in a way that is similar to the 911 emergency numbers in some developed parts of the world. They help people who are witnesses to or need help during emergencies like fires, robberies, violent attacks, accidents at home or on the road, or health crises by letting them reach help quickly through the toll-free three-digit number 112.
The ECCs are now fully operational in 27 state capitals across the country. Four more sites are currently testing their services, and they are expected to open in September 2023. This will make a total of 31 ECCs, and another set of four is scheduled to start up before the end of the year.
Support for response agencies
The Commission has provided Computer-Aided Dispatch (CAD) systems to the police, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Fire Service, Federal Road Safety Corp (FRSC), Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Ambulance Service, and State Emergency Management Agencies (SEMA) to make emergency calls to the national emergency toll-free number 112.
ECC agents are trained and given state-of-the-art communication tools, like digital radio, IP, and geo-location technologies, to help first responders find the scene of an accident quickly and efficiently.
Agents work shifts, so services at the Nigerian emergency office are always available.
The NCC says that response agencies like the police, who work 24/7 to stop, prevent, and catch criminals, are getting more mobile communications devices, some of which will be placed in their offices to get information from call agents at emergency communications centers immediately. This also ensures that the force’s leader gets information quickly so that they can take charge of national situations.