Adewumi Ademiju 
Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti (ABUAD), is set to launch “Air Purifier”, an ICT device/solution for gauging air humidity.
The launch, which would be the first of its kind in Africa, takes place in February next year.
A press release on Monday signed by the ABUAD Director of Corporate Affairs, Tunde Olofintila which was made available to New Telegraph in Ado-Ekiti stated that the launch under the supervision of New Horizons, the world’s largest ICT training organization established in 1982, is the product of ABUAD/New Horizons’ partnership and determination to ensure the production of entrepreneurship-minded graduates and not those with mere academic certification that will be shopping for jobs after graduation.
The university’s Founder & Chancellor, Aare Afe Babalola, OFR, CON, SAN, conducted a round of the ultra-modern Information Communication Technology Centre at the weekend.
The centre is equipped with 150 sophisticated computers designed to further boost the performance of students and lecturers of the university.
The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of New Horizons, Mr Tim Akano, said that through the launch, ABUAD students will be turned into marketable innovators, while the attention of the world would be shifted to ABUAD.
Akano emphasised that the launch will largely be predicated on “Internet of Things”, IOT, a concept which underscores the use of the internet to monitor virtually anything, adding that it will be beneficial to ABUAD students in many ways, including but not limited to the following:
“The launch and its continuous application will build the requisite confidence, focus and discipline in ABUAD students in the ever-competitive global job market, stressing that in the contemporary world, the would-be employers look beyond university certificates before offering their jobs to prospective employees”
“Product developed after the launch could be commercialised, the launch will position ABUAD as a university that is entrepreneurship-focused, a university that will be producing job creators and not mere job seekers, and the launch will ensure that every student attending the university benefits from digital empowerment and practical exposure expected of a world-class institution of Higher Education.”
Speaking on a global note, Akano lamented that most graduates in contemporary times do not have the required skills that the industries are looking for in addition to university degrees.
His words: “Graduates nowadays do not have what the industries require: skills in addition to academic certification. It must always be realised that, as good as academic certificates are, they are not sufficient. We are therefore out to marry certification with the requisite skills required in today’s employment market”.
He added: “For graduates of today to thrive, they need ICT skills in their respective areas of study/specialisation. ABUAD was established to teach others how a university, properly so-called, should be run. Our partnership will strengthen the ABUAD franchise in the community of universities globally.
“We want to put ABUAD in the Guinness Book of Records by ensuring that it will be the first university in Nigeria to have 2,500 computers in one hall.
“This will be in addition to producing and providing solutions of world standards. We want the world to shift attention to ABUAD. It is possible because we have done it in 90 different countries around the world, including the USA, UK, France, Germany, China, Hungary and South Africa, among others”.
In Nigeria, New Horizons operates in 150 Universities and High Schools, training over 100,000 students yearly. Some of the New Horizons’ partnering universities include but are not limited to Babcock University, Ilishan, Remo, Redeemer University, Ede, BOWEN University, Iwo, BELLS University, Ota and Lead City University, Ibadan, as well as the University of Lagos.
Reacting to the development, the elated ABUAD Founder said the launch will be a further realisation of his dream and desire to make the university a shining example of how a university, properly so-called, should be run.
Babalola said, “I thank God for what he has enabled me to achieve in my lifetime. My wish, my hope and prayer are that this university must, in my lifetime, be recognised by the international body as one of the Best 100 in the world. So, I still have a lot of work to do to bring this dream into fruition”.
