Solving Perennial Big Problems in African Industry-Academia Collaboration: Two Nigerians Create IAL Product
Posted by Press Release | 3 years ago | 827 times
Over the years, several submissions have been made regarding the connection between academia and industry, and their roles towards sustainable society for everyone. The ivory towers are expected to meet the society where they are established at the points of their needs. However, the narratives in the public domain indicate that these tertiary institutions are far from fulfilling the objectives for which they are established. Thus, it is common to get the graduates trained from these institutions tagged as unemployable; the researches carried out as not meeting the standards while the gown has refused to meet the town.
Having been involved in researches on issues and needs in both the town and the gown in the last three years, Mutiu Iyanda Lasisi and Rasheed Ademola Adebiyi are of the opinion that there is a need to create a medium that will not only facilitate a flow of information but also generate meaningful conversations from both ends. On Saturday 7 August, 2021, the duo is launching AbitoCitta, a platform that seeks to dwell on providing solution driven content rather than problem-focused content being produced predominantly by the mainstream news media across the country/continent on educational institutions.
Mutiu Iyanda is an insights writer at Tekedia Institute and Co-founder of Infoprations, a data-driven management consulting company, while Rasheed Ademola Adebiyi is a media/communication lecturer at the Department of Mass Communication, Fountain University, Osogbo who also writes for Tekedia as a freelancer.
At the virtual launch to be chaired by the erudite lawyer, Mr. Kunle Rasheed Adegoke SAN, Prof Farooq Kperogi will give a keynote on the theme “Media Representation and Reportage of the Academia in Nigeria/Africa: Issues and Options” while Professor Ayobami Ojebode of the Department of Communication and Language Arts would lead a panel of discussants which include Lekan Otufodunrin, a former Online News Editor of the Nation Newspapers, Kofoworola Belo-Osagie, an education correspondent with the Nation Newspapers, Mallam Mustafa Abubakar of the Corporate Affairs Unit, University of Ilorin and Mr. Francis Oguaju, a public affairs analyst.
Apart from using the platform to document and publicize researches, innovations, breakthroughs and other issues in the tertiary learning centers on the continent, AbitoCitta will also offer advisory services and other solutions to the lingering problems within the system. The social entrepreneurship platform is set to connect the institutions with their remote and immediate communities highlighting the responses, impact, insights and limitations.
