People With Disabilities Seek 5% Employment Quota From MTN, Airtel, Others

The Executive Secretary of the National Commission for Persons with Disabilities (NCPWD), James Lalu, has called on Telecoms Service providers in Nigeria to comply with the legal requirement to dedicate five per cent of their employment quota to persons with disabilities.

He made the call during a courtesy visit by a delegation from NCPWD to the Executive Vice Chairman (EVC) of the Commission, Prof. Umar Danbatta.

Nigeria has an estimated 35.5 million persons with disabilities.

Lalu commended the NCC for the “wonderful work it has been doing through various projects in support of people with disabilities in the country.

“What we want to achieve is to make Nigeria a country that is comfortable for PLWD by ending discrimination and providing adequate reporting system and we have seen NCC as a strategic and important partner in this journey.”

The NCPWD boss also tasked the EVC to help in creating awareness among telecoms service providers to comply with the legal requirement to dedicate five per cent of their employment quota to persons with disabilities, according to a statment released by the Commision on Tuesday.

Lalu told the regulator that people with disabilities are ‘smart, professional and intelligent’ and can make significant contribution to the growth of the respective organizations employing if they are employed.

Danbatta who was represented by Director, Human Capital and Administration at NCC, Usman Malah, said the NCC recognises and aligns with the noble objectives behind the establishment of NCPWD as enabled by the Discrimination Against Persons with Disabilities (Prohibition) Act of 2018.

Danbatta said that in addition to implementing the five per cent inclusiveness of persons with disabilities in NCC’s staffing efforts in accordance with the law, the telecom regulator, through the Universal Service Provision Fund (USPF), has executed many projects within the framework of its E-Accessibility Programme in last 10 years that targets the challenged members of the society.

“In other words, the project provides ICT tools and Assistive Technologies (ATs) to the blind, the deaf, dumb, crippled, cognitively impaired, and other categories of people living with disabilities. As disadvantaged members of society, the project is designed to assist in improving the quality of life of people living with disability,” he said.

He also disclosed that NCC deployed 84 assistive Information Technology projects at different locations in Nigeria to support people with special needs.

He said the E-Accessibility Projects were deployed between 2012 to 2020 in at least 84 locations nationwide.

“The E-Accessibility project seeks to meet the ICT needs of persons living with disabilities in Nigeria by providing ICT tools, assistive technologies, training, and Internet provision in the identified locations. Between 2012 to 2020, the NCC has deployed the E-Accessibility Projects in, at least, 84 locations nationwide,” he noted.

The EVC added that the NCC recognises and aligns with the objectives behind the establishment of NCPWD as enabled by the Discrimination Against Persons with Disabilities (Prohibition) Act of 2018.