FUT Minna Research Group Went on a 3-Day Industrial Tour within Lagos Metropolis

We introduced ourselves as Advanced Engineering and Innovation  Research Group (AEIRG), a research group domiciled at the Department of Mechatronics Engineering (DOME), Federal University of Technology, Minna. The group, whose membership cuts across students and lecturers of this great citadel of learning, is made up of professionals and researchers from various fields of knowledge related to Information and Communication Technology (ICT).

As a prominent and an award winning research group with lots of medals and prizes to his accolades, we went on a 3-day tour of IT industry and establishment between 17th and 19th November 2016 within the industrial city of Lagos.

At the dawn of Wednesday 16th November 2016, sixteen members of the group made the team that left Minna for the tour to Lagos. The team was headed by Prof Abiodun Musa Aibinu, a Professor of Mechatronics Engineering and head of the Group.

On our way to Lagos, we paid a courtesy visit to a prestigious institution of learning, Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH), at Ogbomosho in Oyo State.

While at Lagos, we went to six distinguished organisations namely Susej Nigeria Ltd., Nokia Nigeria, Citiserve Group Nigeria Ltd., Andela Nigeria, Siemens Nigeria and Kudi.ai. They are all notable establishments whose impacts in the Nigerian market cannot be over-emphasized.

On Thursday, 17th November 2016, we began the tour of industry with a visit to Susej Nigeria Ltd. at Ilasamaja Industrial Estate. Moreover, on the same day, we also visited Nokia Nigeria at Lekki, where we had the opportunity of meeting some of the University alumni. The Nokia family was elated to receive us and as a result they arranged a meeting for us with their top management team the following day.

The tour continued on Friday with a visit to Citiserve Group Nigeria Ltd. at Maryland. After leaving Citiserve, we progressed to Nokia as a fulfilment of the previous day arrangement. In the afternoon, we ended it for the day with a memorable visit to Andela at Yaba.

The tour ended on Saturday with a remarkable visit to Siemens Nigeria at Victoria Island and another noteworthy one to a top ranking payment solution provider, Kudi.ai, at Victoria Garden City. The team, thereafter, returned safely back to Minna on Sunday, 20th November 2016.

Prof Aibinu, in his statement released after returning from the trip, expressed his satisfaction with the exercise. “The tour was indeed a successful one. All the organisations were delighted to receive us and consequentially promised a good collaboration with our University in the future. Above all, all the members of the team were very glad and wished to also be part of the subsequent ones,” He said.

 We therefore, call upon the University Management to incorporate such programmes into the school curriculum, and if possible make it mandatory on all the students as parts of their requirements for graduation.