Nigerian Economic Summit Group Invites Osun over Opon Imo (Tablet of Knowledge)

Staff March 17, 2014

The Nigerian Economic Summit Group may have found the Opon Imo, the Osun’s Tablet of Knowledge a veritable learning tool whose content and framework need to be examined and propagated across the country.
The Group has invited the state to be part of its 20th summit to share the experience of its innovative e-learning device with people across the country.
The summit with the theme: “Transforming Education through Partnership for Global Competition,” holds from 18th to 20th March at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja.
Opon Imo’s Project Manager, Mr. Bambo Bashorun, will lead the state’s delegation to the summit where he is expected to share his experience with other participants.
Other people invited as members of the panel, according to the NESG’s letter to Osun signed by its Director General, Mr. Frank Nweke, are the Managing Director of Galaxy Backbone Plc, Gerald Ilukwe; Country Director (Nigeria) of Microsoft, Mr. Kabelo Makwane; Country Manager, Google Nigeria, Ms. Juliet Ehimuan; Managing Director, Bharti Airtel Nigeria, Mr. Segun Ogunsanya and Chief Executive Officer, ICX Solution, Mr. Khalifa Imama Galandaci among others.
Mr. Bashorun is expected to take the audience on a journey of how Opon Imo was conceived and transformed into reality as well as its impact on the state’s education sector in the last one year of its deployment.
According to the organizers, it is their belief that Mr. Bashorun’s “experience as the Head of Opon Imo would be invaluable at the 20th Nigerian Economic summit. We would like to hear how its deployment has improved learning outcomes in the State of Osun and what are the challenges facing the use of IT in the classroom.”
It will be recalled that Osun pioneered the e-learning, which was adjudged one of the first across the world, tablet last year to expose its students to information technology as it is being done in the developed countries of the world, where education has gone digital.
And since its debut in 2013, Opon Imo has won awards both at national and international levels as one of inventions of the 21st century contributed to humanity by the State of Osun.
Through initiatives such as Opon Imo, the Governor of Osun, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, has won many laurels both within Nigeria and abroad.
These include, the ICT State of Year 2013 by the Nigerian Telecom Development; World Summit Award E-content initiative; Africa’s Most Innovative Telecom Product of the Year (Opon Imo), by the Nigerian Telecom Development; Governor of the Year on Social Responsibility Award; 2013 from the SERAs at its 7th Annual award;  the Award of Excellence for Pragmatic Leadership, Environmental Management and Youth Empowerment; Information Technology Brand of the Year from Brands in Nigeria Award and others.
The Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) was established in 1996 to serve as a platform for public-private sector cooperation on Nigeria’s economic development.
It was an offshoot of the Nigerian Economic Summits (NES), which was introduced in 1993 by the Chief Ernest Shonekan-led Interim National Government.
Since then, the summit has an annual event. Mainly, the NESG concerns itself with how to foster open and continuous dialogues on Nigeria’s economic development.
Hence, its vision is to become, strategically, “The Nigeria’s leading private sector think-tank committed to the development of a modern globally competitive economy.”
Through this, it therefore, seeks to focus its activities on policy advocacy, research, communication and education.