Who We Are

NiSIT did not begin as an association. It began as an act of solidarity. When Mr. Habeeb Adeagbo arrived in Italy in 2018 as a student at the University of Bologna (UNIBO), he found a familiar situation: prospective Nigerian students asking the same questions, one by one, to everyone they knew. In 2019, rather than answer those questions individually, he created a group to reach everyone at once – and Go-Italia was born. The founding cohort of Go-Italia comprised fellow UNIBO students: Mr. Olatunji Ojoawo (Tunji), Mr. Abiola Ajayi, and three others – Al-Ameen, Victor, and Bayo – though the latter three would later become less active or not come to Italy. A separate "Go-Italia Pre Arrival" sub-group was created for students who had already received their visas, guiding them through pre-arrival logistics, enrolment, and settling in. Ridwan, a Nigerian student based in Padua, was part of the network from the first year, channeling prospective Padua students through the platform. By 2020, the pre-arrival group had grown substantially, drawing in Nigerian students from universities across Italy, not just Bologna. What had started as a small UNIBO support network was becoming a genuinely national community.