ABUAD Partners Huawei, Weevil Company to Provide Campus Security for Varsity

• Meets global standards in campus security

Afe Babalola University (ABUAD), a leading private university in West Africa, has set a standard in Nigeria by investing heavily in a smart campus surveillance infrastructure within its campus environment.

This is an initiative first of its kind within the university system and this is being done in collaboration with Huawei, a foremost global technology company, and its indigenous partner, Weevil Company. 

This development is coming to the university at a time when Nigeria’s security system is being challenged, hence the need for the university to improve its campus safety for its students, staff and other employees of the university.

The project is intelligent video surveillance built on advanced AI functionality to cope with the increasing demand for analytical-based surveillance on campus. 

The components of the technology include an AI Video Analytics solution that will deliver full-fledged intelligent surveillance based on high definition Software Define Cameras (SDC) and a robust storage platform built with AI capabilities to provide surveillance monitoring within the campus while enhancing the efficiency of the security personnel with the right tool to become predictive and proactive.

It also comes with a robust data analytics component that gives real-time statistics of various activities within the campus while also leveraging on AI functionalities to track the movement of students, staff and visitors and also detect incidents like smoke, fire, Intrusion, crowd gathering within the campus environment.

Afe Babalola University and the Lagos State Government are the only entities in Nigeria with this latest smart surveillance technology. 

According to the DMD at Huawei Technologies Nigeria, Dong Guangqiang Jim, “We are highly honoured to be part of the initiative to implement a robust state-of-the-art campus surveillance technology based on AI Video Analytics led by the visionary himself, the Founder Afe Babalola University, Aare Afe Babalola.

“This is a laudable project and Huawei Technologies, the leading ICT solutions provider, is highly elated to partner with ABUAD on implementing an Intelligent Video Surveillance built on advanced AI functionality to cope with the increasing demand for analytical-based surveillance in the campus.”

The Head of Vertical Solutions Architect at Huawei Technologies, Olayemi Joseph, said: “We make bold to say ABUAD, as one of Nigeria’s foremost university, has taken the lead to pioneer this deployment and thereby become a pace-setter in the use of the AI Video Analytics surveillance systems in academic campus scenario. 

“We do not doubt that this will rapidly increase the rating of ABUAD as a leader in utilizing the use of latest technology to drive digital transformation within Nigeria’s educational system, as well as across the globe. Once again, we made bold to say we are proud to be associated with this innovative vision and we hope other universities can give consideration to such initiative.” 

Speaking on the innovation, the Chief Executive Officer of Weevil Company, Hansel Ndu Okeke, said that the priority of ABUAD is to ensure safety for its students, staff and employees using the Smart Campus Surveillance project.

His words: “We always want to use our technology to transform organizations and make them achieve better outcomes and run at their best. The university’s priority is safety for its students, staff and employees because an unsafe environment cannot only affect students’ mental and physical health, but also endanger learning. With our technologies, the university would be a fantastic environment for learning and living.” 

Similarly, the Chief Information Officer of Weevil Company, Germain Ndu Okeke, explained that the technology fosters a sense of trust and confidence within the university.

“With our AI technology, the university would be able to differentiate between university students, employees and visitors using the technology’s facial recognition feature. Thereby providing the university security team with real-time insights into visitors’ behaviours, movements within the campus, what type of vehicle or motorcycle they came in with, their last location within the campus and so much more which would in return give them all the necessary information needed to monitor and secure the campus. These will foster a sense of trust and confidence within the university,” Okeke said.

With this initiative, the university will become the safest and most secure academic environment in Nigeria, as it will afford the lecturers, students and other members of the community a high sense of alertness, while the general well-being of the campus will be serene.