Alhaji Aliko Dangote, Chairman of Aliko Dangote Foundation, has made yet another deft intervention in the educational sector with the donation to Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, a 2,160 fully-equipped bed space hostel complex.
The students’ halls of residence comprising of 10 blocks of 360 rooms built at a colossal sum of N1.2 billion is coming after similar gestures to Bayero University, Kano and University of Ibadan, where the business mogul donated multi-billion naira business school complexes as part of his contribution to the development of education in the country.
The new students’ hall of residence at Ahmadu Bello University was commissioned to commemorate the 41st convocation of the University during which the institution reciprocated Dangote’s philanthropy by conferring on him and the renowned labour leader, Hassan Sumonu, with honourary Doctorate Degrees. Also 15,787 graduating students were also awarded various degrees.
Dangote explained that he was moved to build the structure having realized that the student population at the universities has kept increasing without a corresponding growth in infrastructure development, a situation that has persisted as the institutions continued to grapple with underfunding.
“Thus, I will like to use this opportunity to enjoin the federal government to consider allocating special funds to the universities to enable them to improve on research and upgrade their infrastructure. Such special intervention has become imperative given the perennial funding challenges facing our universities,” he stated.
Dangote posited that the federal government alone could not shoulder the entire burden of funding tertiary education due to competing needs of other sectors that also demand priority attention. This is where Public Private Partnership (PPP) can and should come in to fill the gap. He then enjoined the private sector to adopt a new approach towards supporting the federal government in tackling the funding deficit in the higher institutions of learning.
“It is also with a deep sense of fulfillment that today’s occasion is also being used for the commissioning of 10 blocks of student hostels which consists of 360 fully equipped rooms with capacity for housing 2160 students, built at a cost of N1.2 billion donated by the Aliko Dangote Foundation to Ahmadu Bello University, (ABU) Zaria. Our intervention is designed to lessen the plight of students who suffer acute accommodation challenges within the campus. We have brought similar intervention to University of Ibadan (UI) and Bayero University Kano (BUK) amongst other institutions,” Dangote said.
Also speaking, Governor Nasiru El-Rufai of Kaduna State, who officially inaugurated the hostel, said Dangote’s philanthropic spirit should be emulated by others who have been blessed by God.
He said both government and the private sector can partner to lift the educational sector in Nigeria, pointing out that if not for the efforts of the university management, the institution was already dying.
The Vice Chancellor, Professor Ibrahim Garba, who was very excited at the magnitude of the structures, said the University is the largest in West Africa and described the Aliko Dangote hostel project as a big relief, as inadequate accommodation is one of the nightmares of the university.
