Nigeria’s innovative and youth-friendly telecommunications company, 9mobile has announced the renewal of its strategic partnership with the prestigious Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria. This announcement was made during a recent visit of 9mobile’s leadership team to the institution. This partnership first established 10 years ago, has been revitalized to bring new and exciting opportunities to the institution and the learning community.
The renewed partnership will leverage the strengths of 9mobile’s technology to provide the institution with world-class virtual learning tools and products, internships for students of the Master’s programme instituted in 2013, and Sabbatical leave opportunities for lecturers, among other initiatives. The telco will also upgrade the existing Telecoms Engineering laboratory it previously installed to offer students and lecturers the highest level of support and improve the capacity of the department to deliver quality teaching.
Chief Executive Officer of 9mobile, Juergen Peschel who led the team, said, “We are excited at rekindling our partnership with this great institution of learning. This partnership, which was established a decade ago, is part of our Corporate Social Responsibility which is aimed at bridging the shortage of highly skilled local manpower in Nigeria’s telecommunications industry following identified knowledge gaps. We are eager to work with the leadership of ABU once again, and we believe this renewed partnership will bring exciting new opportunities for the institution.’’ he enthused.
The Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Admin, Prof Ahmed Ibrahim, in his welcome remarks said, “We appreciate the collaboration and partnership with 9mobile over the years because it has strengthened the capacity of the Telecommunications Engineering department of the institution to manage the fast-changing technology age. The Telecommunication laboratory established by 9mobile in 2013 serves internal stakeholders and enables external institutions to carry out industry research. We believe this renewed partnership will create more opportunities for our students and 9mobile”.
9mobile launched the 9mobile Telecommunications Engineering Program 9TEPP, in partnership with Plymouth University UK; Etisalat Academy, UAE; Huawei; and National Office for Technology Acquisition & Promotion (NOTAP).
The key objective of the programme is to contribute at developing local manpower with regard to telecommunications technology skills and knowledge. The long-term goals were to develop a pool of telecom technology experts to serve as a possible workforce for 9mobile and other verticals, promote industry/academia partnerships, and sustainably empower society through strategic and innovative CSR initiatives.
9mobile funded four ABU Lecturers to obtain their Ph.D in Communication Engineering from the Plymouth University, United Kingdom and more than 30 MSc. Students graduated from the programme on a fully funded scholarship by 9mobile.
