The Abdul Samad Rabiu Africa Initiative (ASR Africa) has commenced the construction of four classroom blocks for the University of Uyo (UNIUYO) as part of her grant to 30 tertiary institutions favoured by her grant.
In his remarks during the groundbreaking ceremony of the project, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of ASR Africa, Dr Ubon Udoh, said the donation forms part of a grant given to the University of Uyo through the ASR Africa Tertiary Education Grants Scheme.
Udoh reiterated the commitment of the founder and Chairman of ASR Africa, Mr Abdul Samad Rabiu, to supporting quality education within the tertiary education system in Nigeria and Africa.
He said the University of Uyo was chosen out of the 220 schools that applied for the educational grant.
“We have lots of criteria that we used to assess the schools that applied for the grant; one of them is NUC ranking.
“We look further at the performance of management, academics and institutions. We look at other projects they’ve been able to accomplish. So, the University of Uyo definitely stood out in that regard
“The quality of management is reflected in the quality of academic outputs, the quality of projects they have been able to attract and how they have been able to manage and maintain those projects
“The grant is a N250 million grant applied to a project that the school decides; the school chooses the project; we don’t assume to tell people what they want.
“The facility, when completed, will host a capacity of 1, 000 students at any given time. That means you can have essential four classes simultaneously
“The time frame for the ASR Africa project for any given time for a N250 to N500 million grant is six months. So, we expect that this project will be completed within a six-month period,” Udoh said.
The managing director urged the students of the institution to make good use of the new facility when it is completed.
In his remarks, the Vice Chancellor of UNIUYO, Prof. Nyaudoh Ndaeyo, expressed gratitude to ASR Africa for considering the University of Uyo a worthy beneficiary of the scheme.
Ndaeyo said that constructing the classroom blocks was a top priority for the university and requested that the project be completed quickly so that the institution could start using it.
The vice chancellor called on other multinational organisations to emulate ASR Africa by coming to the assistance of the institution.
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