The Nigerian government has revealed of plans to inaugurate a scheme that will allow students across the nation’s institutions of higher learning to own a computer.
Speaking in the country’s capital Abuja, the minister for communications technology Omobolaji Johnson said the Nigerian government is shifting away from providing computer laboratories for academic institutions. Instead, it has decided to empower the individual student with personal computers that are connected to the internet.
The project, set for launch later this week, was conceived following reports indicating Nigerian students were underserved in ICT, she said.
“Any student in a university that can prove that he is a bona fide student in the university and is in good academic standing would be able to get onto a portal that he will key in which school he is in, what his name is, what level, and that information would go to the university.
“The university registrar would then confirm that he or she is a bona fide student in that university. Once that’s confirmed, two messages go out – to his guarantor; it also goes to the bank in addition to the local PC assembler,” Omobolaji said.
The minister added that her department has talked to selected banks to support the scheme with loans that have fairly reduced interest rates.
“The guarantor gets a loan from the bank; the assembler gets the message that says: ‘produce this computer for this individual’ and hopefully within a few days the student gets his computer,” she said.
The scheme will be flagged off with twelve universities and six local banks. In addition to the federal ministry, the scheme also has the full support of the National Universities Commission (NUC), Nigerian ministry of education and the ministry in charge of youth development.
