Varsities Partner Firm on Digitisation, Storage Services
The University of Benin (UniBen) and the Benson Idahosa University (BIU) have signed agreements with Retail Development and Investment Company Limited (RDIC), an information technology company, primarily focused on content management and distribution.
RDIC is the owner of the publication engine, www.iwemi. com. The agreements were signed to provide digitisation, storage and publication services for the universities.
According to the terms of the agreement with UniBen and a similar one later signed with BIU, RDIC will manage the universities’ digital assets, implement their e-Textbook programs and integration, provide library content platforms and services as well as anchor the schools’ content distribution among others.
Speaking during the UniBen signing event, the Chairman of the UniBen Public Private Committee, Professor Ikponmwosa Omoruyi, who is also the Deputy Vice Chancellor of the university, stated that the partnership would aim at driving academic excellence through the ease of access to information that digitisation will provide.
“Today’s event is epochal in our quest for driving academic excellence in our university. Our university’s partnership with RDIC will not only make for easy access to educational content for our students and academic staff through online storage of theses, dissertations and other publications, but will also boost the school’s revenue generation, completely eliminate Intellectual property loss, facilitate ease of reference to specific project materials and provide global visibility of the school’s project work to multi-national companies and project financiers,” he said.
The deputy vice chancellor, promised to give the partnership all the necessary support to ensure that it succeeds in its objectives and urged members of the university community to avail themselves of the opportunity the partnership offers them to enrich their academic experience.
Public Relations Officer of UniBen, Dr. Michael Osasuyi, said he was very optimistic about the potential of the agreement to boost the profile of UniBen.
“University of Benin is a trailblazer in the academic world and has got a number of firsts to its credit. This agreement, which is another first of its kind in the history of this country, will go a long way in projecting this citadel of knowledge in the best light and will earn it a place of pride amongst its peers locally and internationally,” he said.
Project Director of Iwemi.com, Mr. Ejimofor Akah, expressed his delight at the formalisation of the partnership and pledged to deliver on the expectations of the universities.