9mobile engineering programme produces 31 masters, 3 PhD Students

9mobile has said that it’s  Telecommunications Engineering Postgraduate Programme (9TEPP), established at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Kaduna State, had  produced 31 masters and three PhD students.

Stephane Beuvelet, Acting Managing Director of 9mobile stated this while hosting the Vice Chancellor of the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) Zaria, Prof.Ibrahim Garba and a team from the institution during a visit to 9mobile corporate headquarters in Lagos.

He noted that the team came to discuss further collaboration with the telco on taking the 9mobile Telecommunications Engineering Postgraduate Programme (9TEPP) to the next level

Beuvelet said the company was ready to commit itself to promoting quality graduate education in Nigeria, hence it would continue to partner with reputable organisations on trail-blazing and impactful academic programmes.

“9TEPP, a taught master’s programme situated in Ahmadu Bello University is implemented in partnership with Plymouth University, UK.

“Through it, 9mobile is innovatively developing local expertise with regards to telecommunications engineering skills”, he said in a statement.

Beuvelet also said that he was always impressed by the quality of Ahmadu Bello University students he came across and that 9mobile was happy with the partnership.

Acting MD noted that the telecommunications industry needed specialists and that 9mobile was happy to be involved in the process of developing the required capacity and technical know-how to bridge the skills gap currently existing in the country.

“Telecommunications is a fast-moving industry that needs specialists, and we are happy to be bringing Nigerian students to the highest levels possible where they can further contribute to its development,” Beuvelet said.

He added that as an innovative brand, 9mobile was not resting on its oars, hence the telco is looking into big data, Internet of Things, blockchain, cloud technology and VOIP apart from cybersecurity and Artificial Intelligence.

According to the statement, Prof. Garba commended 9mobile for supporting the 9TEPP academic programme which he described as “an important field of human endeavour.”

While giving the progress report, he disclosed that 31 master’s students have completed their study so far while 3 PhD holders have been produced.

“This is a large resource; a lot of value for the industry,” Professor Garba said.

Dr Aliyu Usman,  Head, Department of Communications Engineering, ABU who gave further updates, said that the programme’s curriculum was  regularly reviewed and that an incubation centre, where the products from the course were being fine-tuned before taken to the market, had been created.

It would be recalled that 9TEPP commenced in 2013 with the initial five-year period ending in 2018 after which it was extended for a further period.

Discussions are ongoing between 9mobile and ABU for its sustenance and scaling up to have more impact on the Nigerian populace.

Plans are underway to set up an online extension of the master’s programme to enable more postgraduate students benefit from the initiative.