From Schools to Switzerland: NCC’s Digital Awareness Initiative Wins Prestigious WSIS Award for Expanding Information Access

NCC’s Digital Awareness Programme Earns Global Spotlight with WSIS 2025 Award for Expanding Information Access

Back in 2006, a quiet digital shift began in Nigerian classrooms. In places where textbooks were once scarce, computer screens lit up. Internet access reached corners of rural communities. And for the first time, thousands of students took their first steps into the digital age—thanks to the Nigerian Communications Commission’s (NCC) Digital Awareness Programme (DAP).

Nearly twenty years later, that pioneering initiative has received global recognition.

On Monday in Geneva, Switzerland, DAP was named a winner of the 2025 WSIS Prize in the “Access to Information and Knowledge” category (C3), selected from hundreds of global entries submitted to the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS).

Presented by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the award celebrates DAP’s long-standing impact in equipping over 300 secondary schools across Nigeria’s six geopolitical zones with computers, internet connectivity, and essential ICT tools.

From Lagos to Lokoja, students now explore online resources on par with their global peers—an achievement transforming both academic opportunities and future career paths.