The University of Abuja (UniAbuja) has commenced the construction of 9,600 bed space ultramodern students’ hostels to cost N16 billon, under the Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement to be completed in September 2025.
Mr Philip Uzouku, the Chairman/Managing Director, Philkruz WA Ltd., disclosed this during the ground breaking ceremony of the construction of the students’ hostels on Thursday in Abuja.
Uzouku said that the company would build and manage the hostels for over 30 years, recoup their money before handing it over to the university.
‘We have been on this journey for over eight years, pushing through thick and thin.
‘This project will not stop until we finish it, so that by next year September, we will start taking new students to live in it.
‘The 9,600 bed space will cost N16 billion and I have six slots in the University of Abuja that will cost about N48 billion to complete it.
‘The landmark is 10 hecters per slot; each slot is 1600 beds spaces.
‘When we build and manage it for over 30
years and recoup our money before we hand over to the university,’ he said.
He said that the company’s motivation to embark on this project was not only to make profit and enrich their pockets.
According to him, the motivation is borne out of the desire to partner with the university to contribute in their efforts to provide modern, affordable and state of the arts students’ hostels.
Uzouku appreciated the Vice-chancellor, Abdul-Rasheed Na’Allah, for giving him the opportunity to be among the investors that have been selected to help alleviate the accommodation problem facing the university.
On his part, Na’Allah urged wealthy citizens to come and build facilities in the university, adding that public universities should not be a government business alone.
He said that the university could accommodate any PPP arrangement that would like to come and build hostels, staff quarters, and canteens among others in the university.
According to him, with enough hostels the university will make a policy that all
students’ will be in the hostels, so that anyone who wishes to stay off campus will need to apply for exemption.
The Registrar, Yahaya Mohammed said that at the moment, the university could only accommodate 6,000 out of the 26,000 regular students.
Mohammed said that the hostels when completed would be a big relief to the students who were off campus.
‘If there are enough hostels, many students will like to stay as this will help to ease the stress of coming from outside the campus.
‘This will be a good market also for other investors to come and invest as they will recoup their money within a short period of time.
‘It will not be a project that any investors would lose or regret partnering with the university,’ he said.
He said that the university has over 63,000 regular and non-regular students.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that UniAbuja and Philkruz signed the hand-over certificate and the project was officially handed over to the company.
Source: News Agency of Nigeria