The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Tertiary Education, Senator Jubril Barau, has commended the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ilorin, Prof. AbdulGaniyu Ambali, for his dexterity and focused leadership.
Senator Barau, who gave the commendation shortly after Prof. Ambali made his presentation to the Committee, specifically lauded the Vice-Chancellor for his “well-detailed submission”.
The Committee Chairman also said that he was “highly impressed by the quantum of the internally generated revenue of N2.5 billion made by the University in the 2016 financial year.
Senator Barau then advised universities in the country to look inwards and see how they can generate more revenue to supplement the dwindling allocations from the Federal Government.
He said, for instance, universities could devise means of generating the electricity they consume instead of spending so much on electricity consumption.
Senator Barau also admonished the universities in the country to “make sure that all monies received from the Federal Government are well accounted for”.
In her own remarks, a member of the Committee, Senator Remi Tinubu, opined that apart from financial accountability, universities must also ensure “project accountability”, adding that they should “try to use part of their internally generated revenue to take care of occasional shortfall in allocations from the Federal Government.
Earlier in his presentation, the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ilorin, Prof. Ambal,i enumerated the revenue generation efforts of the University, disclosing that the institution invested heavily in agriculture to shore up its revenue base.
Prof. Ambali told the Senate Committee that recently the University signed a Memorandum of Agreement with an American firm for the building of a 500 megawatts solar power plant on the campus in its sustained bid to contribute to national development and also boost its revenue generation profile.
