The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) on Monday in Geneva, Switzerland receives WSIS 2025 Prize (Category C3: Access to Information and Knowledge) at this year’s World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS+20) Forum.
The award recognizes Dr. Aminu Maida-led NCC’s exceptional contribution to expanding Internet access in some of Nigeria’s most underserved regions through community-led infrastructure.
The Executive Vice Chairman of the NCC, Dr Maida received the award in the well-attended ceremony in Geneva. He also led the NCC delegation at the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Prizes Awards.
Six Nigerian digital projects were shortlisted for the prestigous World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) 2025 Prizes:
- Project 774 local government connectivity project Action Line Category 2 CL2
- Digital Awareness Program (DAP) AL C3 – Access to information and knowledge
- Advanced Digital Empowerment Program for Tertiary Institutions (ADEPTI) AL C4 – Capacity building
- Tech4Dev AL C4 – Capacity building
- Telecom-Based Research Grant Initiative AL C6 – Enabling environment
- Digital Learning Initiative (DLI) AL C7 – E-learning
During the period from 3 October 2024 to 14 March 2025, all WSIS stakeholders were invited to submit WSIS related projects to the 8th WSIS Prize 2025 contest.
The list of nominated projects was announced on 11 April 2025 and WSIS stakeholders were invited to participate and cast their vote by 4 May 2025. 18 winning projects were, however, announced together with 72 champion projects at the WSIS Prize 2025 Ceremony at the WSIS+20 High-Level Event 2025 held on Monday, 7 July 2025 in Geneva.
Eighteen WSIS Prizes were awarded to recognize successful initiatives by governments, private sector actors, civil society members, and partnerships between all stakeholders. Duirng the prize ceremony, winners were acknowledged for their outstanding efforts and achievements in the implementation of WSIS outcomes.
The WSIS Prizes contest was developed in response to requests from the WSIS stakeholders to create an effective mechanism to evaluate projects and activities that leverage the power of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to advance sustainable development. Since its inception, the contest of WSIS Prizes has attracted more than 300,000 stakeholders.
Following the outcomes of the United Nations General Assembly Overall Review on WSIS (Res. A/70/125) that called for a close alignment between the WSIS Process and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (Res. A/70/1), the WSIS Prizes is the unique global platform to identify and showcase success stories in the implementation of the WSIS Action Lines and SDGs.
