A global energy and infrastructure conglomerate, Sahara Group has flagged off the construction of the Sahara School of Innovation and Extrapreneurship at the University of Lagos (UNILAG).
The new school is expected to serve as a platform for promoting inventions and solutions that will facilitate sustainable development and global competitiveness in Africa.
Director, Governance and Sustainability at Sahara Group, Ejiro Gray, also announced a N39 million scholarship award for students of the university.
She said Sahara would collaborate with UNILAG to make the school a world class facility that will proffer solutions to future challenges today, with emphasis on energy, entrepreneurship, data science, digital arts and culture, artificial intelligence and robotics, fintech, among others.
The new school to be completed in two years would be domiciled in the Faculty of Social Sciences of the university.
On the scholarship award, Gray explained that the scholarship is in two groups. The first one is N26m to be given to 26 exceptional students at N1m each as a one-off award to commemorate the 26th anniversary of the group while the remaining N13m is for 13 students in select disciplines and to be shared equally will be in perpetuity.
The award will be N1m yearly for each category, including provision for annual sponsorship of exchange programmes for lecturers within Africa.
Vice-Chancellor of the University of Lagos, Professor Oluwatoyin Ogundipe, expressed delight that the drivers of the project are alumni of the university.
“We aim to instil in our students, more than ever, the culture of innovation, entrepreneurship,” the VC added.
