TETFUND Designates Unilorin as Innovation Hub for Academic Excellence, Releases N1bn Grant to Institution

Hammed Shittu in Ilorin

The Vice Chancellor of the University of Ilorin, (Unilorin), Kwara State, Prof. Abdulwahab Egbewole has disclosed that the management of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund(TETFUND) has designated the university as an innovation hub in order to advance the academic excellence of the university.

Already, he said TETFUND had released sum of N1 billion grant in order to facilitate the development of the innovation hubs in the institution.

Egbewole, stated this yesterday, during an annual interactive Ramadan Iftar with journalists held in Ilorin.

According to him, “I want to believe as an educational industry, we have been able to secure grant of cumulative of $100,000 for four of our colleagues.”

He added: “We have succeeded in getting over N1 billion from TETfund and the organisation has identified the university as an innovation hub funds’ disbursement.”

The vice chancellor also disclosed the plan of the institution to introduce electric bus and intral-train services to ease transportation challenge of students and staff in the University

He said the transportation issue was one major project he hopes to solve during his tenure as VC, hinting that aside the effort the institution was making on the railway transportation, “we are also looking at electric bus transportation.”

“The good thing about it is that this is open road few of our colleagues in the department of electrical engineering are already working on that model and because we just released the Senate research grant, we are hoping that part of the grant will be used to work on that model,” he said.

The vice chancellor, noted that more buses would be released as discussions had been held with some of the people that intend to introduce more buses on the road.

“Transportation problem has reduced because we have created at least within our campus, from gate to the campus is a smooth ride, we are also looking at the government of Kwara State to conclude the ongoing Tanke bridge project which will further reduce the transportation challenge,” he said.

The vice chancellor expressed optimism in making the institution the number one university in Nigeria, Africa and to be one of the prominent key players in the world before the completion of his tenure.

Egbewole, also expressed his willingness to support sports in all its ramification in the institution.