UNILORIN emerges as leading talent source for Nigeria’s Telecom, Network Engineering workforce
By Tajudeen Babamale
The University of Ilorin has emerged as one of the leading Nigerian universities supplying Telecommunications and Network Engineering talents to major Technology and Telecommunications companies.
The development came days after the University was ranked first among Nigerian universities in research quality, which further explains the Institution’s growing profile in research and the development of highly skilled manpower for critical sectors of the economy.
According to a LinkedIn analysis by SaaS/Tech business developer, Ismail Isah Idris, titled “Which Universities Are Nigeria’s Telecom & Network Companies Getting Their Talent From?”, the University of Ilorin recorded the largest representation among the universities considered.
The analysis examined publicly available professional profiles of engineers working with major industry players, including MTN, Globacom, Airtel and Huawei, to identify the universities from which telecom and network engineering talent is being sourced.
The analysis focused on six Nigerian universities selected based on their performance in telecommunications research, as ranked by EduRank. UNILORIN was listed first in the talent analysis, ahead of the University of Lagos (UNILAG) and the Federal University of Technology, Minna (FUTMINNA).
According to the analysis, UNILORIN and UNILAG had the largest representation across the companies studied, while FUTMINNA also recorded a strong presence, particularly at Huawei, where it had 40 profiles in the sample examined.
The finding explained the contribution of UNILORIN to Nigeria’s telecommunications and technology ecosystem, particularly through the training of professionals who are contributing to the operations of leading companies in the sector.
The post, however, noted that the analysis was based on a sample of publicly available professional profiles and should therefore not be regarded as a comprehensive representation of the entire telecom engineering workforce in Nigeria.
He explained that Huawei was included alongside MTN, Airtel and Globacom because the objective was to examine where telecom and network engineering talent comes from, rather than to compare telecommunications operators.
