The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), has called on tertiary institutions and research institutes to always use internet facilities to upload research works for global view.
This is contained in a statement issued by Mrs. Hadiza Umar, the Head, Corporate Affairs of NITDA in Abuja on Monday. The statement said Dr. Vincent Olatunji, the Acting Director-General of NITDA made the call while unveiling the virtual e-library infrastructure donated by the agency to Ekiti State University, Ado-Ekiti on Friday.
Olatunji said that the facility would enable the university improve on its teaching and research on Nigeria’s development.
“One of the ways to contribute to the economy is by using Information Communication and Technology (ICT) to upload research works so that others can have access to them and read, not by downloading.
“Researches carried out by the university must be put online because NITDA and the government is trying to encourage local content. If you don’t have anything to sell, you will continue to buy.”
“The world is a global village, research and education for development cannot be actualised without the application of ICT tools like e-libraries.
“Education has to be same all over the globe and this can only be done with ICT, this infrastructure should provide access to electronic materials for research, training and education,’’ he said.
Olatunji said that the virtual e-library facility was the largest of NITDA’s donations to universities and schools, adding that it contained more than 30 million online materials to facilitate research for the schools.
He, however, decried the poor management of past donations by the agency, and urged the beneficiaries to ensure maximum use of the facilities. “In deploying these facilities across Nigerian universities and communities, we have felt challenged in the area of sustainability,’’ he said.
He implored the university management to deplore adequate security and regular maintenance. “If cables are removed for one reason or the other, then it is like indirectly cannibalising what the agency is doing,” he said.
The NITDA boss said bandwidth and internet have been provided for the school with one-year subscription, urging the institution to sustain the service. In his remarks, Prof. Oye Bandele, Vice-Chancellor of the university appreciated the efforts of NITDA in the deployment of ICT infrastructure to the institution.
Bandele also expressed optimism that the facilities would change the learning and teaching architecture of the university for good. He noted that with the virtual e-library, the state university would step up by joining other top rank universities in the world to compete in research and learning.
“This ICT infrastructure will seriously impact on the progress of this university, in terms of ICT deployment ranking, and Computer Base Test (CBT) examinations.”
“We believe the infrastructure will help the university to have modern outlook and join other progressive institutions by training prospective learners in ICT knowledge/appreciation in some specific areas.” He assured NITDA of adequate maintenance and sustainability of the infrastructure for the growth of the institution and the nation.
NAN recalls that the agency has provided virtual e-library to tertiary institutions across the six geo-political zones in the country. The Times Higher Education’s (THE) World University Rankings (2015) revealed that the best university in Nigeria was ranked 601 in the world.
(NAN)
