ABUAD to launch air purifier next February

Afe Babalola University, Ado-Ekiti (ABUAD) is set to hit global headlines again as students of the 15-year-old university ranked by Times Higher Education Impact rankings among the best 100 universities in the world and number one in Nigeria for four consecutive years, spanning 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025, are set to launch “Air Purifier,” an ICT device/solution for gauging air humidity in February next year.

The launch, under the supervision of New Horizons, the world’s largest ICT training organisation established in 1982, is the product of ABUAD/New Horizons’ partnership and determination to ensure the production of entrepreneurship-minded graduates and not those with mere academic certification that will be shopping for jobs after graduation.

Speaking when the founder and Chancellor, Aare Afe Babalola was conducted round the ultra-modern Information and Communication Technology Centre equipped with 150 sophisticated computers designed to further boost performances of students and lecturers of the university, the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of New Horizons, Mr. Tim Akano, said that through the launch, ABUAD students would be turned into marketable innovators while the attention of the world would be shifted to ABUAD.

Akano said the launch would largely be predicated on Internet of Things (IOT), a concept which underscores the use of the internet to monitor virtually anything, adding that it would be beneficial to ABUAD students in many ways, including but not limited to the following: “The launch and its continuous application will build the requisite confidence, focus and discipline in ABUAD students in the ever-competitive global job market. In the contemporary world, the would-be employers look beyond university certificates before offering their jobs to prospective employees; product developed after the launch could be commercialised; the launch will position ABUAD as a university that is entrepreneurship-focused, a university that will be producing job creators and not mere job seekers and the launch will ensure that every student attending the university benefits from digital empowerment and practical exposure expected of a world-class institution of higher education.”

Speaking on a global note, Akano lamented that most graduates in contemporary times do not have the required skills the industries are looking for in addition to university degrees.

His words: “Graduates of nowadays do not have what the industries require, which is skills in addition to academic certification. It must always be realised that as good as academic certificates are, they are not sufficient. We are, therefore, out to marry certification with the requisite skills required in today’s employment market. “For graduates of today to thrive, they need ICT skills in their respective areas of study/specialisation. ABUAD was established to teach others how a university, properly so-called, should be run. Our partnership will strengthen the ABUAD franchise in the comity of universities globally.

“We want to put ABUAD in the Guinness Book of Records by ensuring that it will be the first university in Nigeria to have 2,500 computers in one hall. This will be in addition to producing and providing solutions of world standards. We want the world to shift attention to ABUAD. It is possible because we have done it in 90 different countries around the world, including the USA, UK, France, Germany, China, Hungary and South Africa among others.”

In Nigeria, New Horizons operates in 150 universities and high schools, training over 100,000 students yearly. Some of the New Horizons’ partnering universities include but not limited to Babcock University, Ilishan, Remo; Redeemer University, Ede; BOWEN University, Iwo; BELLS University, Ota; Lead City University, Ibadan and the University of Lagos.

Founder and Chancellor of the university, Aare Afe Babalola, said the launch would be a further realisation of his dream and desire to make the university a shining example of how a university, properly so-called, should be run.

According to him, the avalanche of national and international awards, accolades and recognitions, as well as encomiums so far showered on the university by notable regulatory bodies and educational stakeholders had already confirmed his position.