Gov. Mohammed Bago of Niger has declared tuition-free education for the 809 newly admitted students of the Abdulkadir Kure University, Minna (AKUM), for the 2024/2025 academic session.
Bago made the declaration during the matriculation ceremony of the university held on Thursday in Minna.
According to the governor, the initiative is part of his administration’s commitment to making AKUM a model institution in the country.
“All the 809 students are tuition-free. Our dream is to make this institution a role model in Nigeria,” he said.
Bago also announced that two per cent of the state’s total investments would henceforth be dedicated to an endowment fund for the university.
He explained that the decision was part of measures to strengthen the state’s education sector and promote sustainable growth in tertiary education.
The governor assured that there would be no Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) strikes in the institution since it is a state-owned private university.
Bago further disclosed that the state government had cancelled its earlier plan to sponsor students abroad on scholarship, saying the funds earmarked for that purpose would now be invested in local tertiary institutions.
“It is not wrong for a leader to make a statement and later retract it. We had planned to send some students abroad on scholarship, but I have cancelled that decision. Instead, we are going to bring in foreign teachers.
“Rather than spending money to send students outside for scholarships, we would invest the funds here to build our own capacity,” the governor said.
The governor also announced plans to construct a housing estate for staff and lecturers of the university and revealed that the Faculty of Medicine and Medical Sciences would commence academic activities in the next session.
He congratulated the matriculating students and urged them to be good ambassadors of their families and the state, adding that each of them would receive a ₦100,000 bursary.
In his remarks, Prof. Muhammad Yahaya-Kuta, the Pro-Chancellor of the university, described the governor as a visionary leader committed to investing in the younger generation through education.
He said knowledge and innovation had become the drivers of global progress.
Earlier, Prof. Mohammed Aliyu-Paiko, the Vice-Chancellor of AKUM, described the matriculation as the beginning of a transformative journey for the students.
Aliyu-Paiko said the university was committed to equipping students with practical skills, innovative mindsets, and entrepreneurial capacity to make them job creators and contributors to national development.
He commended the governor for championing the Green Economy Initiative, which, he said, aligns with the university’s mission to train professionals in sustainable agriculture, biotechnology, environmental sciences, ICT, artificial intelligence, and renewable energy. (NAN