NgREN Secures Access to EBSCOHost e-Content for Nigerian Varsities Valued At $4M

The Nigerian Research and Education Network (NgREN), established to provide an elaborate infrastructural backbone to interconnect all Research and Education Institutions in Nigeria and link them with other Research and Education Networks (RENs) worldwide, has secured access to EBSCOHost e-content (including e-books, journals, academic magazines, etc.), which will be available for free to all Nigerian Universities until December 31st, 2016. These resources valued at about $4 million, would, in fact, grow the number of available resources in the nation’s University Libraries and as a result, heighten research activities amongst institutions in the Nigerian University System (NUS).

Since its formal launch in July 2014, the NgREN has made significant progress in, particularly, reducing the cost of bandwidth for subscriber institutions from an initial USD 1,260 per mbps when the project took off, to USD 160 per mbps and to a present cost estimate of USD 50 per mbps, saving Nigerian Universities a huge chunk of their resources, which could be channelled to other areas of need. Some other notable achievements of the REN include the reduction in travel costs as a result of the video-conferencing facilities and capacity building cost savings through online and remote training modules.

By accessing the EBSCOHost e-content, Nigerian Universities stand a better chance of enhancing their position in international university rankings just as in the accreditation of programmes, where library holdings form a major component of the assessment. Universities in Nigeria are hereby encouraged to utilise these resources which are available on the NgREN at no cost until the end of 2016. Plans are underway to ensure that the Universities on NgREN continue to access EBSCO and other e-content beyond the expiration of the current service.

NgREN, EBSCO Background

In recognition of the critical role that research and education plays in the development of the nation, the Nigerian Universities Commission (NUC) in partnership with the Committee of Vice-Chancellors of Nigerian Universities, established the NgREN to ensure that universities could communicate, collaborate, access and share resources across national and international boundaries, primarily for the purpose of research and learning, but with added capabilities to offer the efficiencies of unified communications and consolidation of digital contents.

EBSCO Information Services is one of the foremost leaders in the provision of quality research content, powerful search technologies and intuitive delivery platforms. The platform also offers premium content in databases, e-books, journals, magazines, etc., as well as very versatile discovery tool for searching across all library resources.

Nigerian Research and Education Network (NgREN)
Peter Okebukola Building
26 Aguyi Ironsi Street
Maitama District, Abuja
Tel: +234 (0) 94602960