UniAbuja to Begin Mines Department in 2023

Kuni Tyessi in Abuja

The University of Abuja (UNIABUJA) has disclosed plans to commence Geology and Mining as a department in the 2023 academic session.

The Vice Chancellor of the institution, Prof Abdulrasheed Na’Allah, disclosed this in Abuja on Tuesday during the second anniversary of University of Abuja and the Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCU).

The department, according to him, will be established in partnership with ACCI, saying that it has put in place a committee working towards its actualisation.

He commended ACCI for the collaboration, noting that the University

has continued to benefit tremendously from the relationship over this one year.

“We celebrate today as a great example of what our nation has asked our universities to do. No university was created whether locally, in local communities, in semi local communities, in other areas such as our metropolis other than to help in the development of our nation.

“University of Abuja now fully realizes that with this collaboration with ACCI we will be meeting the responsibility bestowed on us and the expectations of the Nigerian people and the Nigerian government and the university.

“This collaboration is coming in order to take stock of what we have done in the last one year, see areas we have achieved, look at areas we need to do more, things we need to jettison inorder to move forward and strategies to put forward to achieve great things in the next year.

“I feel as Vice Chancellor of this university that this last one year, if I look back, we have actually moved forward, maybe not to the level that we would have wanted it to be because of so many issues including problems on campus, but I’m glad to say that we have moved forward.

“We have put in place a plan to start an academic department of Geology and mining through this partnership. Our goal is to ensure that the mining and geology on this campus is actually owned not just by the government or universities but by industry-Universities.

“University of Abuja and ACCI are working together, that is our goal and we have put in place a committee that is working, almost at the level of setting the whole thing in motion in 2022/2023 academic session as a department not just of university of Abuja but of Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry, working with Mines and other organizations together,” he added.

Also speaking, the ACCI President, Dr. Al-Mujtaba Abubakar said the occasion was aimed to celebrate the partnership of the two institutions, review activities of the year 2022, and discuss proposed activities for the forthcoming year.

Represented by the ACCI Vice President,  Dr. Kola Owoka, Abubakar said the relationship between the two institutions that has climaxed into a beautiful union started with the Signing of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in mid-2021 at the Vice Chancellor’s Conference Room.

“The MoU allows both parties to prepare a skilled work force, business and educational institutions to preserve our nation’s competitiveness and economic strength in response to a rapidly changing and increasingly competitive world.

“Both ACCI and UofA in the MoU agreed to partner in the areas of; research, training, capacity building and continuing education, workshops and conferences, executive and regular MBAs, skills development, technology and knowledge transfer, trade fairs and expos, preparation of curriculum and modules for specialized trainings, policy advocacy, amongst others,” he said.