NITDA, Nigerian Army to collaborate on simulation centre development

The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has indicated its willingness to form an alliance with the Land Forces Simulation Centre, Nigeria (LFSCN), a formation of the Nigerian Army, to establish a simulation centre for the military.

NITDA Director-General, Mr Kashifu Inuwa, disclosed this on Friday when he hosted Maj.-Gen. Garba Sani, Director-General, LFSCN in Abuja.

Inuwa observed that the adoption of technologies in executing warfare had become more pronounced than ever, as the war in recent times were rarely fought physically.

“We can work with you to develop a simulation centre where arms and ammunition could be simulated and use for training.

“NITDA is organising an Innovative Challenge for youths to come up with home-grown innovations, and we can integrate the idea of coming up with simulating military hardware for the centre.

“We can call on people to compete and bid for such ideas and we work with them to develop something.

“NITDA will be willing to assist the start-ups to proffer solutions that can be developed into products,” he said.

He said further that the agency could help build the capacity of the personnel in the centre on identified areas of skill gaps.

“Part of the agency’s mandate is to build the digital skills of Nigerians, so we urge you to work with our team to identify your capacity building needs.”

Earlier, Sani said that new strategies to prosecute war were accelerating the acquisition of digital skills, hence the need for the collaboration.

He added that simulation training had become imperative in order to save resources for the government.

“A trainee soldier would require 10,000 round of ammunition before he can perfect shooting, and the resources to provide that is not available hence the need to adopt simulation for training.

“We also hope that NITDA provides us with ICT hardware and software systems, development of customised software-based simulation systems, research industry linkage to assist LFSCN in building the adequate capacity of its staff,” he said.

According to the LFSCN director-general, the cordial working relationship will create local simulation platforms, while facilities like internet bandwidth will promote simulation activities.