The nation’s President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan has commissioned the Nigerian Research and Education Network (NgREN), a broadband video-conferencing project, initiated by the National Universities Commission (NUC). President Jonathan, who was represented at the commissioning in Abuja by the former Supervising Minister for Education, Barrister Nyesom Wike, stated that the project was aimed at promoting research and educational collaboration, linkages and partnership between Universities within and outside the country as well as research communities and the government. On the objectives of the project, the Executive Secretary of NUC, Professor Julius Okojie, disclosed that it would provide more and cheaper bandwidth for member-institutions to leverage on the technology to promote innovative ways of teaching and learning. Presently, 29 institutions in the country were selected for the pilot project, including the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB).

The Head, Information and Communications Technology Resource Centre (ICTREC) of FUNAAB, Dr. Olutayo Ajayi, described the platform as laudable because “as it is now, we cannot afford to be left out from what is going on in the world. This has been on in South Africa, East Africa and North Africa while West Africa is just joining and Nigeria is one of the first fronts on this platform”. He pointed out that the University would embark on sensitisation exercise to educate members of the community on the benefits of the project and in the next few months and with the approval of the University Management, expand its platform to the various Colleges so that the University can have its own intra-video conferencing facilities.

The Vice-Chancellor, Professor Olusola Oyewole, while speaking during the live video conferencing from the University, expressed appreciation to the Federal Government and NUC, stating that the platform would be maximally utilised for the development of the educational system in the country.