By Kenneth Ehigiator
Google Africa has gone into partnership with Nigerian universities to improve internet access to students in the country.

Announcing news of the partnership, Google said the development was part of its efforts to get African users, especially university students and staff, online.

Google’s Technical Program Manager for Sub-Saharan Africa, Ego Obi, said the program was designed to increase internet usage in numerous universities across Africa in the coming months.

According to her, the program has started with the internet centre built at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, UNN, which Vice President Namadi Sambo witnessed its launch last week.

scheme to improve internet access for tens of thousands of students
“We are delighted to be pioneering this initiative in Nigeria, in collaboration with universities around the country.

“We want to get more and more African users online by reducing barriers to accessing the internet and helping universities to access the world’s information and take advantage of the Internet’s many opportunities,” Obi said.

Obi said the Google Universities Access Program, GUAP, centre was built at UNN, in collaboration with MTN, in view of the university’s commitment to invest in campus’ infrastructure, adding that ultimately, the internet bandwidth would reach facutly and stuents.

The program offers Internet bandwidth, Google Apps for Education, training & integration grants and the support of Google engineering.