Zenith Bank Donates Tabs to Indigent UNILAG Students

Uchechukwu Nnaike

As part of efforts to provide equal access to online resources for all students, the University of Lagos has presented 104 learning tablets to the institution’s indigent and visually impaired students.

The tablets, donated by Zenith Bank Plc, were presented during the matriculation of about 12,000 students for the 2021/22 academic session.

Zenith Bank’s Chairman, Dr. Jim Ovia, had at the last convocation donated 3,500 tablets to support indigent students. The donation was in response to the appeal by the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Oluwatoyin Ogundipe, for support to over 1,000 indigent students at the university.

Ogundipe said 50 tablets would be distributed to indigent students, while 54 were for the visually impaired. He said the university would continue to give tablets to indigent and other students needing them.

According to him, the university deployed 500 tablets to the library.​

“Those who want to use them could go there, borrow and use for about two weeks and return them, after proper documentation, just like somebody going to the library to borrow books,” he explained.

On the matriculation ceremony, Ogundipe said over 50,000 candidates applied for admission, but only 11,885 were admitted.

“The admission was in two phases, 8,038 were admitted to represent the 70 per cent for 2020/2021 session, while 3,847 represented the remaining 30 per cent to complete the cycle,” the VC explained.

Reacting to a plan by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency to screen new students for drugs, he said it had been the practice at the university to screen all students for drug use.

“We have been doing that in the past three years, and those that deserve counselling are directed to the university counsellors,” he disclosed.

Also speaking, an executive director of the bank, Mr. Dennis Olisa, representing Ovia, said the gesture was a way of giving back to society.​
He stressed the need for collaboration to ensure meaningful progress in any aspect of life’s endeavour.