Professor Andrew Haruna Appointed Board Chairman Of The Iwemi Academic Platform

Bennett Oghifo

Former Vice-Chancellor, Federal University Gashua Pro-Chancelor, Bingham University brings Decades of Academic Leadership to Nigeria’s
National Knowledge Infrastructure Platform

RDIC Africa has announced the appointment of Professor Andrew Haruna as Board Chairman of Iwemi — Nigeria’s first national AI-powered academic publishing, research archiving, and knowledge commercialisation platform.

The appointment marks a defining moment in Iwemi’s evolution from a pioneering technology platform into a nationally recognised academic institution with governance leadership of the highest order.

Iwemi, operated by RDIC Africaand accessible at www.iwemiresearch.org, www.iwemischool.com and www.iwemi.com, is a tripartite digital ecosystem that addresses three of the most critical and longstanding failures in Nigerian tertiary education simultaneously: the permanent destruction of academic research output, the absence of a commercial publishing pathway for Nigerian lecturers, and the near-total inaccessibility of locally authored academic content to the students who need it most. Nigeria’s 313 universities, polytechnic and Colleges of Education produce between 40,000 and 60,000 original research papers every academic year. Fewer than five percent of that output is ever permanently preserved, globally indexed, or financially rewarded. The remainder is printed once and discarded. Iwemi permanently ends this cycle: every research paper, thesis, and dissertation uploaded to the platform is permanently archived, globaly indexed, and earns its author royalty income on every subsequent download — indefinitely. Nigerian lecturers, meanwhile, gain a commercial pathway to publish locally authored, curriculum-matched textbooks that students can purchase at affordable prices, financed through the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND).
The platform also provides universities with a direct, automatically generated Internally Generated Revenue stream from their own academic output — at zero capital cost to the institution.

Professor Haruna is one of the most distinguished academic leaders Nigeria has produced. A Professor of Linguistics and Nigerian Languages, he served as Vice-Chancellor of the Federal University, Gashua from 2016 to 2021 , and currently serves as Pro-Chancellor of Bingham University. His internationally recognised research in Linguistics has been conducted in partnership with the University of London, the Johann Wolfgang Goethe Institut, the German Research Foundation, and the Austrian Science Fund — placing him among the most globally credentialled Nigerian academics of his generation.

As Board Chairman, Professor Haruna will provide strategic academic governance to the Iwemi platform, chair the Academic Oversight Board, and preside at the INARIC 2026 Grand Award Ceremony in Abuja on 8 December 2026.Iwemi is currently in active engagement with the National Universities Commission (NUC), the National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE), the Nigeria Education Repository and Data Bank (NERD), the Nigerian Governors’ Forum (NGF), the Federal Ministry of Education, and TETFund — positioning Iwemi as the private sector technology partner at the heart of Nigeria’s national education infrastructure reform agenda.

The platform is deployed in partnership with Interswitch and Wema Bank (ALAT).The CEO of RDIC Africa, Mr. Ejimofor Akah expressed delight that “Professor Haruna’s appointment signals to every Vice-Chancelor, every regulatory body, and every development partner engaged in Nigerian education that Iwemi is not a technology experiment. It is a national academic institution. His chairmanship is the most powerful endorsement we could receive, and we are honoured by his confidence in our mission.”

About RDIC Africa / Iwemi: RDIC Africa (RDIC Limited, RC966105) operates the Iwemi Education Engine — Nigeria’s first national AI-powered academic publishing, research archiving, and e-learning ecosystem comprising www.iwemiresearch.org, www.iwemischool.com, and www.iwemi.com.
Iwemi is deployed in partnership with Interswitch and Wema Bank, and is in active engagement with NUC, NCCE, NERD, the Nigerian Governors’ Forum, NELFUND, TETFund, and the Federal Ministry of Education.