World Bank team visits ACETEL

The Africa Centre of Excellence on Technology Enhanced Learning (ACETEL), has hosted delegates from the World Bank as well as the Association of African Universities (AAU) as part of the move to support the centre towards accelerating its project implementation activities.

The visit took place on Tuesday, April 18, 2023 at the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) headquarters, Abuja.

The delegates, led by the representatives of the National Universities Commission (NUC), also paid a visit to the Vice-Chancellor of the university, Prof. Olufemi Peters at his office.

While addressing the visiting delegates, Peters said ACETEL has impacted the university positively, and assured the team that he will push the centre to achieve more.

He stated that the university will intensify efforts to improve its support as it applies to ACETEL.

Dr. Ekua Bentil, while intimating the VC of the purpose of their visit, commended him for his support to ACETEL, saying such assistance is not common with other universities.

Earlier, the ACETEL director, Prof. Grace Jokthan, had received the team at the centre’s conference room, where she welcomed them and introduced the delegates, the Deputy Vice Chancellor, Technology, Innovation and Research, Prof. Monioluwa Olaniyi, who is the Focal person for DLI 7 and other members of the centre.

A member of the delegates, Dr. Ekua Bentil, while presiding over the meeting, stated that the goal was to help centers accelerate, especially those with a lot of potential but experiencing challenges, and consequently raised several questions that were discussed with the ACETEL team.

The World Bank team also had separate meetings with ACETEL students and the Sectoral Advisory Board who are also partners with the center, where they had a chat with them to know how well they are doing in their academics and also their challenges.

The team took a tour of the CISCO lab and the Directorate of Learning Content Management System (DLCMS) studios.

Members of the World Bank delegates were Ekua Bentil, Sylvia Mkandawire, Dilip Parajuli, Adeline Addy, Harry Crimi, Joshua Attah etc.

They commended ACETEL for doing very well and referred the centre as one of the best, urging it, however, to support other universities in terms of capacity building and personnel for data management.

The team urged ACETEL to source for grants outside the university and not rely on the institution alone for funds.