New Telegraph

Lawmaker seeks upgrade of Offa Poly to varsity

A Senator, representing Kwara South Senatorial District, Oyelola Ashiru, has called for the upgrading of the Federal Polytechnic, Offa in Kwara State to degree awarding institution and other related matters.

 

This was as he said that he had “presented at the plenary a Bill for an Act to amend the Federal Universities of Technology Act Cap F23 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 2004, to establish Federal University of Technology, Offa by upgrading the Federal Polytechnic Offa in Kwara State from a Diploma awarding institution to Degree awarding institution and for other related matters.”

 

The bill, which was read for the first time in the hallowed chamber on April 27, this year, was said to have been referred to the Senate Committee on Tertiary Institution and TETFund. Giving a background to the bill, the lawmaker said that the acute limited admission space in Nigerian universities for admission-seeking students necessitated the call for the establishment of more federal universities in order to bridge the gap.

 

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), he added had noted that only a few percentage of candidates seeking admission to universities secure admission due to the limited capacity of the institutions.

 

Ashiru, who noted that apart from the fact that the polytechnic has been consistently rated as one of the best 10 polytechnics in the country, which earned it national and international recognition, with a population of over 10,000 students, the polytechnic had also been ranked as the best affiliated institution in the country by the National Universities Commission (NUC).

 

The polytechnic, which has been anchoring IJMB programmes since 2018 in collaboration with Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, according to the lawmaker, had been approved by the NUC to run degree programmes since 2018/2019 academic session in affiliation with the Federal University of Technology, Minna in Niger State, while the polytechnic had also finalised the process of affiliation with the Federal University, Oye-Ekiti and Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso respectively.

 

The polytechnic, Ashiru added, has competent and capable lecturers with over 50 PhD holders to train students in the field of Science, Technology and Humanities.

 

He said: “The Federal Polytechnic, Offa has a land mass of 1,050 hectares of which 27 per cent is presently in use, with good road networks, 10 per cent of the road network tarred.

Besides, the institution is blessed with modern infrastructural facilities, such as lecture theatres, well-equipped libraries, standard medical and entrepreneurship centres, as well as hostel facilities that could conveniently accommodate more than 3,000 students, with regular water supply and a supportive host community, with the needed human resources to immediately commence academic session after its conversion to the Federal University of Technology.”

Read Previous

NCF takes tree planting to schools, advocates restoration of ecosystem

Read Next

OAU’s renewed strides to reposition varsity

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *