News has it that Nigeria's former Vice President Atiku Abubakar privately owned University, the America University of Nigeria, AUN, Yola has been described by Google as one of world's leading centers of excellence.
Also as part of moves to boost ICT infrastructure in the Institution, Google, an Internet multilingual and social networking and identity service has entered into a major collaboration effort with the University, just as the AUN gained a grant of USD 112,400 (about N17,000,000) from the internet giants.
According to AUN, it has been working on this collaboration for almost a year and under this agreement, the University will use funds from Google to purchase goods and services that will help support and expand its network.
In a statement by the Chief Information Officer of AUN, Mr. Julius Ayuk Tabe SUnday, the University announced that the collaboration will also boost its Internet availability on campus.
Six other universities, Ghana, South Africa, Kenya, Uganda and Senegal were also among other institutions of higher learning expected to benefit from the programme being offered to sub-Saharan African universities by Google.
The social networking service, by this agreement, intends to ensure Google applications are widely used by partnering universities.
Excited by this development, the Chief Information Officer of the American University of Nigeria, Mr. Julius Ayuk Tabe, said it was a phenomenal achievement for the institution to offer broader Internet connectivity across all its campuses and locations for data, voice and video.
According to him, combined with the growing knowledge of the Google communication tools, the collaboration would open new doors for the students of the university that will leave the institution well equipped to start their future careers successfully, thereby contributing to the technological advancement of Nigeria, Africa and the world.
In her remarks, the President of the university, Dr. Margee Ensign, said in the 21st century, access to the Internet was necessary for students and educators around the world.
She promised that the University would extend its technology, teachers and tools such as the Google Applications to their host community, Nigeria and Africa continent.-Vanguard
