The Emergency Communications Centres, or ECCs, currently position many young people and professionals from Nigeria in jobs, according to the Nigerian Communications Commission, or NCC, in addition to offering the public crucial emergency response services.
The Commission claimed that in addition to the aforementioned, the ECCs also provide residents all around the nation with informal business opportunities.
On the Toll-Free Number 112, you may contact the ECCs, which have been built and are currently fully functioning in 27 State capitals around the nation.
They function similarly to the 911 Emergency Numbers in certain industrialised countries to offer assistance to those who are witnesses or in distress due to situations such as fire breakouts, robberies or violent attacks, domestic and traffic accidents, health crisis, to instantly reach response agencies through the toll-free three (3) digit numbers, 112.
In order to increase the number of centres to 31, four more are now undergoing test runs, and four more are anticipated to open their doors before the year is over.
The Federal Road Safety Corp., the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control, the Ambulance Service, and State Emergency Management Agencies (SEMA) are among the response agencies for which the Commission has provided technology platforms such as Computer-Aided Dispatch (CAD) systems to enable the dispatch of emergency calls through the national emergency toll-free number 112.
The three-digit code was created to make sure that people can quickly remember the three-digit code 112 to report emergencies.
According to the report, ECC agents have received training and are outfitted with cutting-edge communications tools, such as digital radio, Internet protocol (IP), and geolocation technologies, allowing first responders to quickly pinpoint the location of incidents and provide effective and efficient rescue services to the general public.
The NCC said that as the agents work in shifts to guarantee that services are provided at all times of the day, Emergency Centre services in Nigeria are accessible, live, 24 hours a day.
In order to enable the reaction agencies, such as the Police, to immediately receive information from call agents at the centres, extra mobile communications devices—some of which are located in the response agencies’ offices—are now being supplied to them.
This is also done to guarantee that the senior leadership of the force receives real-time information for command and control over emergencies or occurrences across the nation.
Each of the ECCs has a staff made up of call agents, facility/IT staff, and administrators, so as they take on more significant responsibilities for providing emergency communications services to the populace, they are also taking on more socioeconomic responsibility for creating job opportunities for the people.
In order to make sure that work at the centres are appealing to young Nigerians and other groups of employees, the Commission carefully determined the baseline pay of the personnel of ECCs.
In reality, more than 1,200 people are being given jobs at the 27 operational sites spread around the nation, while more will be employed as the additional eight centres under different stages of completion become fully operational by 2024.
The centres are also run by native Nigerian consultants who have been hired to handle all aspects of facility and operational management.
