FG Orders Tertiary Institutions to Subscribe to NigREN

The federal government has directed tertiary institutions including universities, polytechnics, and colleges of education across the country, to move their connectivity and services to the Nigerian Research Educational Network (NgREN), a flagship of the National Universities Commission (NUC).

It has consequently, banned public universities and other tertiary institutions in the country from subscribing to private providers of internet broadband with immediate effect.

Mallam Adamu Adamu, minister of Education, gave this directive yesterday in Abuja at a workshop on EBESCOHOST Electronic Content, organised by NUC for Vice Chancellors and other representatives of Nigerian universities.

Adamu, who was represented by Professor Anthony Anwukah, minister of State for Education, said the federal government would no longer condone a situation where individual institutions subscribe at higher costs for services which could be provided at a cheaper rate through the NgREN consortium.

The National Universities Commission is currently working with EBSCO host, a South African information and technology firm to provide electronic books and journals that could be accessed by all users in Nigeria.

It was gathered that on the average, a Nigerian university spends about N60 million for 155mbps of internet bandwidth when NgREN offers the service at less than N26 million.