The Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Kolawole Salako has commended the Federal Government’s efforts at ensuring that the power outage facing federal universities becomes a thing of the past. The Vice-Chancellor, represented by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic), Prof. Bolanle Akeredolu-Ale, gave the commendation while fielding questions during the stakeholders’ interactive session, organised by the World Bank Team on Energising Education Phase II. The Vice-Chancellor lauded the Federal Government for choosing FUNAAB among 37 universities to benefit from the solar electrification project, stressing that it was long awaited.
According to the Vice-Chancellor, “We all know the problems we have been having with the issue of electricity in the country. This is one programme that the University is really looking forward to be part of and I think we are very delighted the University is among one of those that has been chosen to enjoy this facility”. He stated further that the solar plant would solve the problem of power outage, if properly put in place and connected. Corroborating the Vice-Chancellor, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Development), Prof. Clement Adeofun stressed that FUNAAB was lucky to be part of the second phase of the project, as seven universities had been selected for the first phase.
Prof. Adeofun added that the stakeholders’ interactive session gave the team an insight into what to design, how the facility was going to work, the advantages and disadvantages associated with the equipment. Commenting on the solar plant, an adviser with the electrification project, Engr. Timothy Shekarau confirmed that FUNAAB had passed full stages to kick-off the creation of the solar plant, saying that “The engineering design, which is key, had already been conducted while the environmental and social impact assessment have also been conducted”. He disclosed that the World Bank was going to finance the project while the University would participate at the construction, operation and maintenance stages.
The Director, Works and Services of FUNAAB, Engr. Akinyele Oluwole restated that stakeholders were involved at the interactive session, to be informed and share their views, as beneficiaries of the project. “People came to talk about the project to know whether that project will be sustainable or not, as you can see that we have different stakeholders represented. We have the University Management, students, and other people that are going to benefit from it”, he said.
