Although the University of Abuja is not being considered by the NUC as a potential partner in the initial satellite Internet project, I was asked to visit the campus to gain a broader understanding of what various institutions are doing in the digital realm.   Accompanied by Mr. Abdulsalami of the NUC's Library Unit, I visited the young campus, located about 60 kilometers from Abuja.

We met with Vice Chancellor Dr. Gambo Laraba Abdullahi,  the acting librarian, and the acting director of Computer Centre.

The University of Abuja has 4,000 resident students, and -- being the nearest university to the burgeoning professional population of the nation's capitol -- they also have approximately 12,000 extension students.  Hence, the university is keenly interested in distance and continuing education.

The VC is clearly interested in networking and Internet in general, but, after cordial greetings and introductions, seemed happy to leave details to staff.   So I joined the Computer Centre acting director, the Chair of the NUNet committee, and the acting librarian for a short meeting at the Computer Centre.

UNIABJ Computer Committee members (Acting Computer Centre Director in red. NUNet Chair to her right.)

The University of Abuja has not been idle.  They report and demonstrate significant progress towards utilizing digital technologies on their campus.

The committee reports almost 50 computers -- mostly 486 and Pentium -- on campus.  Of these, maybe 40 are attached to the network.  The network is an older coaxial Ethernet, but the group hopes to upgrade to twisted pair soon.  Currently, the network extends to seven departments.

The university hosts about 150 email accounts.  The network manager reports 3-4000 messages a week through NUNet (although NUNet could not confim this amount of traffic.)

The group has looked at a VSAT Internet connection,  but has determined it is too expensive.  They are waiting for NUC to define some less expensive options.

There are about 75 students in university's computer science program.  Most students have email accounts.  Approximately  30 computers are available to students.

I took a brief tour of the Computer Centre and saw an impressive array of computers with actual students at the keyboards.  Most of the computers were running DOS, and several were clearly not functional, but those that were working were well utilized and available to students.  

This group has done an admirable job with the resources at hand.