ICT varsity to begin soon in Enugu

Minister of Communications, Adebayo Shittu, yesterday said arrangements are in top gear for the immediate commencement of the ICT University of Nigeria.He said the Federal Government has secured 20 hectares of land from the Enugu State Government for the state campus of the proposed university.

A statement from the ministry said the campuses of the Digital Bridge Institute (DBI) in the six geo-political zones of the country and the Enugu Campus, will be converted to the new ICT University of Nigeria campuses.

“There is the need for more space for immediate and future use, especially for the construction of lecture halls, students’ hostels and staff quarters,” the statement said.

Adebayo, who visited the Enugu State Governor, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, gave him a letter of request for additional plots of land and restated Federal Government’s determination to upgrade the Enugu facility of the DBI to a campus of the ICT University.

He also requested the governor’s approval for allocation of 20 hectares of land for the university.The minister, who addressed members of the State Executive Council on his ministry’s reform agenda, also used the occasion to commend Ugwanyi for his giant strides in the state.

The statement added that Ugwuanyi threw the minister’s request to the State Executive in session and the request was unanimously endorsed for the governor to grant the request.

Ugwuanyi, Adebayo, his entourage and the Director General of Voice of Nigeria (VON), Osita Okechukwu, also visited the University site at the former Digital DBI at Ibagwa Nike, in Enugu East local council of the state for an inspection of its facilities.

Adebayo, however, disclosed that the government would move to ICT compliant countries like the United State of America, Korea, India and Singapore to get first class lecturers for the university.

He added that the Vice-Chancellor of the university would be a professor of ICT with a passion for entrepreneurship, “so that when students of the institution graduate they will not look for jobs to do but be on their own.

“The university would use private sector funds to run while the Federal Government would provide the enabling environment for the running of the institution.”Chairman of the implementation committee, Julius Okojie, said the committee submitted three reports on the academic brief, the law and the programme.
He disclosed that the university would run a college system, which would include colleges of information technology and security technology.