By Felix Khanoba
The National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) says it will confer honorary doctorate degrees on the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Tajudeen Abbas, and the President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, during its 14th convocation ceremony scheduled for Saturday, April 14, 2025.
Vice Chancellor of NOUN, Prof. Olufemi Peters, made this known at a press briefing on Wednesday in Abuja, ahead of the convocation.
According to him, Dr. Adesina will receive the Honorary Doctorate Degree of Doctor of Humane Letters (L.H.D.) (Honoris Causa), while Hon. Abbas will be awarded the Honorary Doctorate Degree of Doctor of Business Administration (D.B.A.) (Honoris Causa).
Peters also disclosed that Adesina will deliver the convocation lecture on Friday.
Commending the duo for service to humanity, the VC said: “The University Joint Council/Senate Honorary Awards Committee has carefully considered and selected the two distinguished personalities for the honorary degrees.”
Speaking further on the convocation, Peters revealed that a total of 17,420 students will be graduating this year, including 40 Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D) students and 16 students who achieved First Class honours and 51 inmates from NOUN study centres at the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS).
“I want to report that this is another opportunity for us to celebrate the academic achievements of our students. A total of 17,420 will be graduating this year, comprising 10,967 undergraduates and 6,413 postgraduates. And then we have 40 students graduating at the PhD level.
“This is a remarkable growth from where we started about four years ago. Of this number, we have 2,103 postgraduate diploma students and 4,310 with a master’s degree.
“Of the undergraduates, we have 16 first-class students, which is fantastic. We have 1,417 second-class upper students, 5,518 second-class lower students, and 2,761 third-class students.
“The total number of graduands from correctional centres this year is 51. This is extremely high, 41 undergraduates and 10 postgraduates from correctional centres,” the VC said.
He further lauded the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) for its continued support in infrastructure and digital connectivity across the about 120 study centres of NOUN, particularly the deployment of optic fibre cables.
Peters also announced that all academic programmes at NOUN have received full accreditation from the National Universities Commission (NUC), with the exception of three pending results.
He also disclosed the establishment of a Directorate of Software Development to enhance internal administrative processes and student support through homegrown technological solutions.
“The Open University is committed to leveraging technology to enhance our administrative efficiency, improve our students’ support services and strengthen our educational process. Perhaps one of the greatest things that we did in the last one year is to establish the Directorate of Software Development.
“Now, what this Directorate has done is that the IT staff that we have—we have encouraged them to provide solutions to the administrative processes that we perform every day in our enterprises. And they have been able to do within this one year of establishment,” he said.
