- Shettima and Abdul Samad Rabiu were both awardees of honorary doctorate degrees of the university at its 24th combined convocation held on Saturday
Vice President Kashim Shettima on Saturday, launched the Abdul Samad Rabiu Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the University of Maiduguri, Borno State.
The N1 billion centre was constructed and donated to the university by the Abdul Samad Rabiu Africa Initiative to accelerate the growth and development of innovation and entrepreneurship among students and researchers.
Shettima and Abdul Samad Rabiu were both awardees of honorary doctorate degrees of the university at its 24th combined convocation held on Saturday.
“On behalf of President Bola Tinubu, who is the visitor to this university, I hereby commission this centre,” VP Shettima said.
“The centre is in line with the Renewed Hope Agenda of the President Tinubu administration for the rapid resuscitation and prosperity of the economy,” he added, as he called for the donation of more of such facilities by other wealthy individuals and corporate bodies.
In his remarks, the Chairman, BUA Group, Abdul Samad Rabiu, said the gesture was part of the corporate social responsibility of the conglomerate and ASR Africa Initiative to facilitate and accelerate the economic growth and development of the country.
“The centre is important in two respects for the university, which has prioritised entrepreneurial training,” the Vice-Chancellor of the university, Prof. Aliyu Shugaba, said in his welcome address at the occasion.
He added, “First, it physically offers the gigantic and befitting edifice for entrepreneurial training in the university. Secondly, it provides the best prospect for the necessary paradigm shift in entrepreneurial learning.”
He lamented that “despite the three months training provided in entrepreneurship and over 70,000 students exposed to it, the objective of creating enterprises by the students at graduation has not been realised.”
He said the Abdul Samad Centre is expected to remedy the situation and foster a thriving innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystem that encourages creativity, collaboration and experimentation.
Shugaba added that the new centre would provide a platform for individuals and grow new ventures, creating a social and economic impact in the process.
“In the future products of the centre will be capable of creating enterprises for self-employment,” he said.