ANY moment from now, Nigerian Universities would be able to afford WiFi Hot-Spots on their campuses, Laptops for lecturers and networked environment for on-line real time services on campus, courtesy of a Nigerian broadband company; Broadband Technologies Ltd.
Already the pilot for this project has come on stream in three Nigerian universities of the University of Benin, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife and the Uthman da Fodio University Sokoto.
Chairman of Broadband Technologies Ltd., Mr. Mike Osime told Vanguard that with the amount of bandwidth available to his company, he was ready to use the Internet to revolutionalise the educational system in the country. To actualise this dream, Mr Osime said that he was working with some strategic partners in the IT world, the financial sector and government agencies.
In the financial sector, Broadband Technologies is already working with First Bank of Nigeria which has granted it a N40 million facility to provide lead financing for the project.
The facility is for the acquisition of asset devices which are critical to the success of the project such as Computers, Printers, Servers etc.
Lecturers would also be provided with Laptops at very comfortable repayment terms through such facilities, said Osime. The intention is to see that our lecturers are IT enabled to bring them up to date with their counterparts worldwide. Osime averred.
In the IT sector, Broadband would be working with international IT companies like HP Invent. The company is also exploring the possibility of working with local computer companies which are willing to support the educational sector. “We believe that an average Nigerian University should have one computer per student. What this translates to for most universities that have huge population is about 4000 computers. We are working strategically with some of the people who manufacture these asset devices to give us special Internet ready computers that are heavily discounted.
The beauty is that these strategic partners are giving us their worldwide educational network to create environments which would enable e-commerce.
“At the end of the day, this partnership with Nigerian universities should make more money for them and enhance productivity, he concluded. Broadband Technologies would also be working with such agencies as the Educational Trust Fund and other donor agencies on the project.
Mr. Osime expects that with such partnership that cut across international boundaries, government should take interest in it and provide the necessary support.
Speaking on the benefit of the project to the Nigerian university communities, Osime said: “What this means is that we buy huge bandwidth in the US; use the latest technology of Wireless, PSL or VSAT to distribute internet capabilities to all the universities and campus environments. That would enable lecturers and the entire community to have access wherever they are – in their gardens, homes, faculties or halls of residence. What we are doing is that we are partnering with some banks to be able to finance the asset devices.
Mr. Osime stated that Nigerian youths are as brilliant as any other around the world, stressing that what they required is exposure to the kind of environment in which others thrive. The internet can provide this environment and that is why we are committed to providing it for the Nigerian youth.
He said that it is brain power that drives economies around the world today, stressing that without the development of the IT sector, Nigeria would be left behind as new economies emerge.
“So if we get these things right, basically in ten years time, Nigeria revenue from these exports from brain power like India and Malaysia, will probably earn more foreign exchange than oil.
Already, Broadband's pilot projects in UNIBEN has proved a success. It has simplified processes in the so much that those tasks that takes days have been reduced to a matter of minutes. In instance is the registration process. Today in that university, registration of students for semesters is done entirely on-line. Even for students to pay fees nowadays in the school, all it takes is for such student to buy a card to the value of his school fees and he/she goes to the computer to enter the PIN on the card against his name and pronto his fees is paid.
Administrative officials in the University say the process has reduced paper work to the barest minimum, and has thus saved the school a lot of money. This is apart from the ease, convenience and speed of the processes.
That is democracy dividend.
Posts: 67 | From: Philadelphia, PA | Registered: Jul 2001
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I don�t see anything terribly exciting about this news. What exactly do you mean by �That is democracy dividend�? In this new age when every country is striving to come up the ladder of technological advancement, you are here touting this rather late piece of news as a dividend of democracy. Are undemocratic governments excluded from this? Do some of the other communist, theocratic, or autocratic governments not have broadband access in their respective universities?
Listen friend, in this new computer age, broadband access and other basic amenities should be the privilege of the common man! People should have these things already�I don�t see why we have to celebrate the fact that these things are finally beginning to become available. Do you jump up and down for joy when this government finally begins to do the things it ought to do? Would you start touting the dividends of democracy when potable water, constant electricity, functioning schools, good roads etc finally becomes the portion of the average Nigerian? Are we not entitled to these basic things already with or without a democracy? Have Nigerians not suffered enough?
Come on man�your excitement can only be likened to someone who gave birth to a child and was oblivious of the child�s physical development. At age 7, the child had no teeth and could not walk, nor talk and yet the parent was unperturbed. Suddenly, at age 8, the child grows an incisor and straightway the parent jumps up, points and announces �Hey, my baby has grown an incisor! What a strong, fast-developing lovely baby!�
Someone should point out even if painfully, that the baby ought to have grown an incisor a long time ago! At any rate, let us not forget that your article says that this is still a project; it hasn�t been realized yet. Even if you insist on being euphoric, wait till all the universities in Nigeria report that they now have reliable broadband access before you fetch your Obasanjo praise-singing Gbedu drum!
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