Vice Chancellor, Kogi State University Kabba, Professor Kehinde Eniola, has disclosed that the institution will on Tuesday, February 25, 2025, matriculate a total of 1,060 new students for 2024/2025 academic session at its 2nd matriculation ceremony.
He disclosed this at a press conference in Kabba on Monday.
Prof KIT Eniola said the matriculating students are the successful applicants out of over 3,000 candidates that applied for admission in the university.
He said the institution is ready to partner interested investors, corporate organizations and individuals for the construction of hostel facilities for students.
The Vice Chancellor explained that the project, through the public private partnership (PPP) arrangement, would be based on build-operate-transfer to ameliorate the accommodation situation in the institution, and also ensure probity and accountability.
He noted that the high cost of living and rapid increase in students’ population have resulted in the high cost of accommodations around the university community.
He emphasized the need for the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TetFund) to assist the university on infrastructural projects, noting that the existing structures were inherited from the Kogi State College of Education (Technical).
According to him, the State Government has invested immensely in the institution’s infrastructure citing many ongoing projects geared towards positioning it for academic excellence.
While calling for homegrown solutions to national issues, the Vice Chancellor urged TetFund to devote more funds to local trainings, research and infrastructural facilities which will in no small measures help the country attain its set goals.
He said though he’s not averse to improving academic staff training and development outside the country, but noted that “most times the foreign trainings are not meeting the needs to resolve the challenges, thereby rendering the whole efforts useless.”
The VC, however, objected to the proposed scrapping of Tetfund by the federal government saying it would spell doom for tertiary institutions in the country, noting that the impact of Tetfund in various institutions of higher learning cannot be over emphasized.
He expressed deep appreciation to Governor Ahmed Usman Ododo for demonstrating genuine commitment and strong dedication to the growth and development of the University.
He also acknowledged the tremendous contributions and support of former Governor Yahaya Bello in ensuring that the dream was made manifest and well grounded.
He assured that the University will continue to institutionalize its relevance and civil engagements in its quest to produce students that will make remarkable contributions to the growth of Kogi State, in particular, and Nigeria in general.
The Vice Chancellor made a passionate appeal to philanthropic individuals and corporate organizations, both within and outside the state, to collaborate with government in making education accessible to all.
He emphasized that the financial burden of funding education was too immense for the government alone to bear, and that collective support was essential to ensure the sustainability and success of educational initiatives.
He charged students to leverage and explore the National Education Loan Fund (Nelfund) for their tuition fees and also ease their financial burdens.
