At the High Level Meeting held on Saturday the 17th of February, 2018 at Golden Royale Hotel, Enugu to discuss the urgent need for participation in the AfricaConnect2 Project. The meeting was attended by institutions in the South East part of Nigeria.

The participants discussed the direct participation of higher education and research institutions in South-East Nigeria in the European Commission supported AfricaConnect2 project as seed investors, and thereby become the beneficiaries of affordable NREN connectivity and services from a Point of Presence located in Enugu with a link to global research networks.

At the meeting, there was an unanimous agreement to participate fully in the AfricaConnect2 Project by all participating institutions. Institutions cannot individually enjoy the full services of AfricaConnect2 which resulted to the formation of a cluster of the Nigerian Research and Education Network (NREN) focused on South Eastern Institutions.

The NREN Cluster was named Zik-Konnect after the late Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe (popularly referred to as Zik). The institutions agreed to make an initial investment in the AfricaConnect2 counterpart funding to interconnect higher institutions in Africa.