ABU Commends MTN Foundation

Top academics and principal officers of the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, have showered encomiums on the MTN Foundation, the vehicle for MTN’s corporate social responsibility initiatives. 
Prof. B.A. Raji, dean of Students’ Affairs and Prof. Zakari Mohammed, the institution’s librarian, both commended the Foundation’s UniversitiesConnect project, which is facilitating students’ access to research resources around the world.
The two university dons gave the commendation recently while speaking at an interactive forum organised by the MTN Foundation to enrich the knowledge of the students of ABU on telecommunication services and equip them with the skills that they require to fully utilize the digital library it had donated to the institution.
They also noted that the digital library has provided a platform for the students of the institution and their lecturers to compete favourably with their peers in other parts of the world in academic research.
ABU Zaria is one of the three beneficiaries of digital libraries, each equipped with 128 networked computers, broadband internet access, three servers, two high capacity printers and a 100KVA generating set. The digital library is linked to over 5,500 virtual libraries across the globe and cover courses from Arts to Law, Medicine, Architecture and Education, among other fields.
The two other institutions, which have benefitted from the UniversityConnect project, are the University of Lagos and the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Efforts are ongoing to incorporate other universities into the project.
 “We owe a lot of gratitude to the MTN Foundation for this laudable initiative,” said Professor Raji, who urged the students and lecturers to get the best out of the facilities.
Professor Muhammed said the facilities will help develop research skills among students and lecturers especially in view of the dearth of physical books in most of the country’s institutions, while urging more corporate bodies to take interest in the future of Nigerian youths and contribute their quota to ensuring that they turn out well.
Hundreds of students attended the interactive session with many of whom made numerous enquiries from members of MTN staff present and expressed their gratitude for the facilities provided by the company.
“I think this is a very laudable programme by MTN and one that can significantly change the course of one’s life positively. I mean, I can just stay within this digital library and source for relevant information from across the world for any academic work that I am doing. I think that is really cool,” said Ghandu Praise, a final year student of the Department of Sociology. 
He urged the company to take the programme to other institutions so that more Nigerian youths can benefit.
 “The future of our youths should be our concern because it is invariably the future of our nation,” says Mr. Akinwale Goodluck, Corporate Services executive, MTN Nigeria. “We are happy to contribute to building a greater nation through the education and careful nurturing of our youth.”