Niger to Renovate Six Technical, Science Colleges in 2019

Niger to Renovate Six Technical, Science Colleges in 2019

By Laleye Dipo in Minna

The Niger State government has said it will renovate six technical, and science colleges across the three senatorial zones of the state this fiscal year.

The state acting Governor, Alhaji Mohammed Ahmed Ketso, who made this known in Minna on Thursday, said the renovation programme would be under the administration’s “Whole School Development Approach Programme” started by the government in 2015 which had seen more than nine secondary schools renovated and equipped with up to date teaching materials.

Speaking at the commissioning and handover of a Hybrid Library donated to the state at Maryam Babangida Girls Science College by Texaco Nigeria Outer Shelf Limited (a Chevron-owned company), Ketso said the programme was part of government’s determination to change the face of education in the state.

He said the renovation would entail the provision of “completely new infrastructure, laboratories, library, text books for both teachers and students, renovation of staff quarters and students’ hostels among others”.

The acting governor, who did not disclose the cost of the project, however said that the government had been able to also recruit additional qualified teachers for post primary schools in the state in the last three years.

Ketso appreciated Texaco Nigeria Outer Shelf Limited for its “huge assistance in our quest towards providing functional education for our people in Niger State”, adding that: “This is a worthy collaboration and we are prepared to continue to stimulate this kind of partnership.”

The Director, DeepWater and Production Sharing Contracts of the organisation, Mr Rick Kennedy, in an address, said the organisation had executed other social investments projects in Niger State, among them construction and donation of laboratory complex to Government Science College, Izom; and the construction of a chest clinic equipped and donated to the Tuberculosis and Infectious Disease Hospital in Chanchaga near Minna.

In addition, Kennedy disclosed that since 2009, 80 students from Niger State have benefited from the Agami scholarship programme, while additional 31 students had benefitted from a scholarship programme floated by NNPC/CNL joint venture national scholarship.

“Today’s donation is another demonstration of the OML 132 partners determined efforts to provide young Nigerians access to quality education,” he said.

The Niger State Commissioner for Education, Hajia Fatima Madugu, in an address, assured the people that the Hybrid Library would be put to judicious use, adding that “vigilante teams” made up of students and staff would be set up to give security to the project.

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