The Chairman of Dangote Foundation, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, has donated students’ hostel worth N1.2 billion to Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the hostel consist of 10 blocks of fully equipped complex with capacity to comfortably house 2,160 students.
NAN also reports that the university had no additional hostel accommodation in the last 40 years until the present gesture by the foundation.
Speaking during the inauguration of the project at the ABU Phase II site, Dangote recalled that when he visited the institution as Guest Speaker of 2016 convocation ceremony, the university authority complained of accommodation constraints.
“When I came here as a Guest Speaker in 2016, the Vice-Chancellor told me that they have needs for accommodation, in fact the last accommodation they had was 37 years ago as at then.
“It is not good for us to leave a university like this without accommodation, really our intention was to accommodate the female students not boys, however, I still plead with the Vice-Chancellor to leave it for the female folk.
“Because of the luxury of this place, it is better to give it to the girls, boys can manage anywhere, may be we need to have discussion to see how we help in terms of transporting them to and fro.
“If you bring the boys here, I will really be in trouble with my daughters, you know I have only three daughters, so they will like to have the ladies here,” he said.
Dangote appealed to businessmen and wealthy Nigerians to ensure that “we continue to intervene in most of these universities, government cannot do all these things alone, there are so many other needs.”
He advocated for an increase of one per cent of corporate tax so that companies can pay additional money mainly for infrastructure in the universities.
“We have to make sure that we give back to Nigeria to show our gratitude because without Nigeria I won’t be where I am today, so we must continue to give back to the society.”
Earlier, the ABU Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Ibrahim Garba, appreciated Dangote for the “gigantic intervention” and appealed to other wealthy individuals to generously emulate his good spirit.
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