The Vice Chancellor of the Federal University of Technology, Minna, Niger State, Prof Faruk Kuta, has revealed that no fewer than 23,000 students of the university reside off campus.
Kuta made this known during the inauguration of a newly constructed students’ hostel by the Abdul Samad Rabiu Africa Initiative, where the vice chancellor called on the private sector to emulate the gesture of ASR to address the housing needs of the students.
The VC pointed out that accommodation was the most essential requirement for the administration of any university to ensure the safety and security of the inhabitants of the university community.
Kuta disclosed that the newly inaugurated hostel was dedicated to the male students of the medical college of the university, who he said, will be resuming from their December vacation.
“I feel very excited, very happy, and one cannot quantify what is going on in my mind now in terms of joy, because one of the cardinal objectives of running a university is to ensure that your students are secure, protected and the only way you can guarantee that is to ensure your students have accommodation on campus.
“So, this is a milestone we have been waiting for, and we have finally achieved it today, courtesy of ASR Africa, and we are very, very grateful.
“I am definitely calling on more individuals from the private sector to come to our aid. If you look at the setting, you will discover that the country can not provide everything the citizens need. The government, too, can not do it all. We need the private sector to come in and intervene in so many ways, especially in the provision of students’ hostel accommodation.
“The entire student population is close to 30,000 and as we speak today, with this one that we have we, can comfortably accommodate close to 7000 and so you can imagine the number that is still outside. So it is a very serious problem for us and that is why we are calling on private organisations to intervene, let them do the same way Abdul Samad Rabiu has done with us,” the vice chancellor said.
The managing director of ASR Africa, Dr. Ubon Udoh, in his remarks, noted that the hostel was part of the ASR Africa effort to enhance student accommodation and welfare on campus, providing a conducive environment for learning, rest, and personal development.
He disclosed that the N310 million Students’ Hostel Building funded under the ASR Africa Tertiary Education Grant Scheme is a 110-occupant capacity hostel consisting of a common room, reception, student hall, supervisor’s office, kitchen, laundry, with well-demarcated multiple exits.
“Over the next two years, ASR Africa will be coming periodically to the school to ascertain the state of the hostel in conjunction with the school for joint accountability in terms of maintenance. Our interventions are targeted at ensuring students are the final beneficiaries, and this is reflected across recently commissioned projects,” Udoh said.
The Permanent Secretary of the Niger State Ministry of Tertiary Education, Sirajo Said, who represented the state governor, Mohammed Bago, commended ASR Africa and its Chairman, Abdul Samad Rabiu, for supporting the university with the donation of the hostel.
He described the gesture as exemplary and worthy of emulation by other corporate organisations. He appealed to ASR Africa to consider extending the same gesture to the state university.
