Akpan Umoh, Uyo
The Abdul Samad Rabiu Africa Initiative (ASR Africa) has commenced the construction of four classroom blocks for the University of Uyo (UNIUYO) with a groundbreaking on Thursday in Uyo.
In his remarks, during the groundbreaking ceremony 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 said 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 a lots of criteria that we used to assess the schools that applied for the grant, one of them is NUC ranking.
“We look further on the performance of management, academic and institutional performance. We look at other projects they’ve been able to attract. So, University of Uyo definitely stood out in that regard
“The quality of management is reflected in the quality of academic outputs and quality of projects they have been able to attract and how they have been able to manage and maintain those projects
“The grant is N250 million grant applied to a project that the school decide, the school chooses the project we don’t assumed to tell people what they want.
“The facility when completed will host a capacity of 1, 000 students at every given time. That means you can have essential four classes simultaneously
“The time frame for ASR Africa project for any given time for N250 to N500 million grant is six months. So, we expect that this project will be completed within six months 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 as a worthy beneficiary of the Tertiary Education Grant 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 multinationals organisations to emulate the ASR Africa by coming to the assistance of the institution.