As higher institutions of learning continue to grapple with inadequate hostel accommodation, obsolete laboratories and dilapidated lecture halls, to mention a few; the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has again reiterated its commitment to executing critical infrastructural projects across the various universities and polytechnics, among others, in the country.
Representative of the Apex Bank’s Head of Procurement and Support Services, Mr. Bandipo Olajide, made this known, when he led a CBN delegation to the Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University Lapai (IBBUL), in Niger State, to ascertain the number of projects to be executed for the institution, as well as their locations.
He said the presence of the team was to reopen the discussions started between the school and the Bank in 2015 in order to be properly availed of the lineup of projects to be inaugurated on the campus soon.
According to him, the location of the infrastructural projects to embark on by CBN matters so that the school master plan will not be terribly distorted. He said their visit would provide ample opportunity for the Bank’s top management to know the necessary provisions to make for the groundbreaking constructions.
Mr. Olajide stated that though financial resources were limited, the CBN is greatly interested in executing the intervention projects so as to enhance the welfare of staff and students at the university.
“The Central Bank does not use prototype designs. Rather, what institutions provide. And by the time the briefs are ready, and approvals given, work would start. Hence, the presence of the representatives of CBN’s Works Department at IBBUL,” he said.
Responding, the Vice Chancellor, Professor Muhammad Nasir Maiturare, thanked the CBN leadership for selecting IBBUL among other schools they will finance construction of landmark projects, promising that the prepared designs would be presented to the Bank without delay.
“The projects we proposed way back in 2015 has remain unchanged. They include School of Business Studies to be sited at Suleja town. A Students Hostel, School of Post Graduate Studies and Medical Centre, all at the Main Campus in Lapai,” the VC said.
Highpoint of the occasion was the presentation of souvenirs to the CBN delegation by Prof. Maiturare. The VC and the Apex Bank’s team, thereafter embark on a tour to the projects’ sites in the school, and also visited the Suleja Campus.
Mahmud can be reached at: [email protected], or 08067492272
