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UI VC advocates improved economy to address housing challenge in school

By Rotimi Agboluaje, Ibadan
02 March 2020   |   3:53 am
Vice-Chancellor, University of Ibadan (UI), Ibadan, Prof. Idowu Olayinka, has prayed for an improved economy to address the accommodation challenge being faced by the institution.

Vice-Chancellor, University of Ibadan (UI), Ibadan, Prof. Idowu Olayinka, has prayed for an improved economy to address the accommodation challenge being faced by the institution.

Olayinka spoke during the groundbreaking and foundation laying ceremony of the hostel apartment initiated by a former student of the university and Maryland, U.S.-based property developer, Olakunle Olarinde, for the construction of a 500-bedroom hostel apartment to ease the problem of accommodation in the institution.

The VC said: “We do pray for an improved economy to be able to address the problem of inadequate accommodation on our university campus.

“I pray that the developer would have enough resources to build and complete the project up to the expected standard. It is a nice idea and I hope that it would be profitable for all concerned as people are into the business to make money and to sustain the business.”

Olarinde said the hostel, which was designed to contain 1,500-bed spaces, was the most ambitious hostel project in any university in the country.
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He noted that the Nigerian universities had experienced a significant rise in students’ enrolment over the past decades without a corresponding plan to match the growth with infrastructural development.

According to him, figures from the National Universities Commission (NUC) indicate that the provision of students’ housing needs was less than 30 per cent of the required number as the vast majority of students were not properly accommodated.

He said the construction of the hostel complex, which would be built with personal funds and loans from banks, would be in phases, disclosing that the first phase of the project is expected to be completed in two years.

The hostel is to be built, operated and transferred to the university 25 years after.

Olarinde said: “Here in our great university, which is the first and the best, we have over 28,000 students but less than 10,000-bed spaces. The university has tried various mechanisms to cope with the problem of accommodation, but the machinery has been overloaded.”

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