Date: 2017-03-15

The Kwara Government has earmarked N450 million for the construction of the postgraduate campus project of the State University, Malete.

The Commissioner for Tertiary Education, Science and Technology, Hajiya Aminat Ahmed, made this known at the official groundbreaking of the project in Ilorin on Tuesday.

Ahmed said the project, which was awarded to Unicontinental Engineering International Company Limited, was expected to be delivered within four months.

She said that the construction of the campus was a confirmation of the present administration’s commitment toward encouraging scholarship and wider enrolment to those seeking opportunities to educate themselves.

"Therefore, when this campus is completed, Kwara State University will be without doubt a fulcrum of knowledge, building human competences and fostering determination and competition among people through the instrumentality of modern technology," she said.

Gov. Abdulfatah Ahmed, in his address, said that the project was borne out of his administration’s flair for human capital development.

"As you are aware, my administration has always prioritised human capital development, especially functional education, as an indispensable ingredient of sustainable development.

"This emphasis is based in recognition that the growth of any society is directly influenced by the quality of human capital resources available to it.

"It is in acknowledgement of this that my administration is committed to developing education at the foundation, secondary and tertiary levels," he said.

The governor said that the establishment of the Post Graduate School was to keep to the resolve to produce quality, skilled and entrepreneurially inclined scholars needed to spearhead a new crop of intellectually sound future leaders.

According to him, the state university, when conceived about eight years ago is designed to be a Multi-Campus University.

He said: "In keeping with this mandate, we took the bold decision of executing this project through Public Private Partnership by sourcing development partners.

"The partnership approach is not only expedient under the current financial challenges confronting our state, but it also ensures our partners have a stronger buy-in into the project.

"The Partnership approach connects with our innovative approach to project funding through the Kwara State Infrastructure Development Fund."

The Vice-Chancellor of the University, Prof. Abdulrasheed Na'Allah, said that the official groundbreaking for the campus had demonstrated the state government's confidence in the university.

Na'Allah said that the project would further make the institution a centre for academic learning and research.

He assured the government that it would not regret the exceptional belief and the investment it had on the university.

Mr. Alex Swan, the Managing Director of the Unicontinental Engineering International Company Limited, said that the company would carry out the project to make the university a world-class standard in term of structure.

Swan pledged that the project would be done to the specifications and delivered within the time frame.