Prince Segun Oyewole, the Chairman, of the Private Hostel Association (PHA), the University of Ilorin (Unilorin), says the institution has invested about N5 billion in private hostels development.

Oyewole, who disclosed this to newsmen in Ilorin on Tuesday ahead of the Dec. 15 commencement of the 20222023 academic session, said it was the highest private hostel investment in a Nigerian university campus.

He expressed excitement and hope ahead of the institution’s scheduled reopening for academic activities, confirming a gradual return to academic normalcy.

According to him, the investors risk bringing their investments to the university because of the uncertainty that always occasioned academic disruptions.

“This is because the private investors have invested nothing less than N5 billion on a hostel in Unilorin,” he said.

Oyewole decried the adverse effects of the prolonged strike of university lecturers on hostel investors, suggesting that investors should be compensated for the number of months lost during the COVID-19 and ASUU strike.

This, he said, could be done by amending the period of Public Private Partnership (PPP) in the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) from 21 years to probably 30 years before their investments would expire.

He explained that this would ensure that the university held on to the existing private hostel investors and attract more of them.

Oyewole said that this would enable the investors to recoup their losses and be encouraged to provide more services.

He added that this would mean many more investors would be attracted to the university to build more hostels.

The chairman explained that each private hostel had a borehole, and urged the university management to create a backup in case the boreholes ran out of water.

“The University dam could be viably used as a major water supply outlet for the whole institution,” he said.

Oyewole also urged parents to visit the hostels frequently to find out the activities and behaviour of their wards and to ensure that their wards were living on campus.

He also urged the university management to extend internet facility to the hostels in the university.

NAN