A two-man delegation from the Aliko Dangote Foundation (ADF) led by its Project Director, Mr. Zakari Momodu and its Health and Nutrition Programme Officer, Mrs. Maryam Buhari Shehu last Tuesday paid a courtesy visit to the Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission (NUC), Professor Abdullahi Yusufu Ribadu, FCVSN, in his office.
In his remarks, Mr. Momodu used the opportunity to congratulate the Executive Secretary on his recent appointment expressing hope that he had settled down well on his very important assignment of repositioning the university education sub-sector.
He said the ADF has not reneged on its commitment towards establishing the Aliko Dangote University of Technology, to which it had already procured the mandatory application form and in the process of its actualization, stating that it remained in the must do list of the Foundation.
He explained that the mission and objective of the Aliko Dangote Foundation is to support platforms that will enable Nigerians and Africans in general achieve their potentials in all fields of human endeavour.
The delegation leader said the Foundation has not really advanced on education as they intended, stating that ADF is considering subsidizing education in the form of scholarships intervention to students in universities and polytechnics across the various states of the country.
He disclosed that two institutions will be selected per state, comprising federal and state tertiary institutions as the case may be, adding that one of the primary mission of the delegation is data gathering and how best to structure the intervention.
Mr. Momodu said the Foundation desires that NUC will coordinate, structure and validate the interventions where and when necessary to ensure that the scholarship scheme iis seamless and benefits real students in the Nigerian universities.
He further said the Foundation intends to provide scholarships for 30,000 students across the country in public institutions in the areas of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), in which 75 institutions will be selected at the total cost of 7.5 billion, noting that the management team wants to keep the scholarship intervention very simple in line with the nature of the donor and founder, Alhaji Aliko Dangote.
He noted that one other challenging and pertinent issue to the Foundation is about who warehouses the funds, whether the fund should go to the student or directly to the universities of their study.
He revealed that there had been various proposals from different schools of thought with one considering that the foundation gives it to the university, but stressed that they were waiting to get NUC’s viewpoint on the issue.
On the efforts of the Foundation in the development of the Nigerian University System (NUS), Mr. Momodu highlighted that it has been intervening in the areas of infrastructure in some institutions including at the Bayero University Kano (BUK), Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma and the Nnamdi Azikiwe University (NAU), Awka.
Responding, the Executive Secretary of NUC, Professor Abdullahi Yusufu Ribadu thanked the Dangote Foundation’s delegation for their massive intervention in infrastructures in BUK, AAU and NAU, which are public universities across the country.
He remarked that on the issue of the Dangote University of Technology, the current one-year moratorium has placed the university project on inactive stage until when lifted in February of 2026.
On the issue of who warehouses the fund, Professor Ribadu described it as a two- edged sword with both sides having its own concerns, noting that lessons can be drawn from the experiences of the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) and Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND).
The Executive Secretary, however, raised concerns pertaining to eligibility and how students will be selected for the scholarships, whether through the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) scores for one year or their Cumulative Grade Points Average (CGPA) for students in 200 levels and above.
He also appealed to the sponsors to put into considerations the issue of gender and disability matters.
In his contribution, the Deputy Executive Secretary (DES), Mr. Chris J. Mayaki reminded the Foundation that some of the STEM programmes are more capital intensive which they should put in mind in projecting their sponsorship.
He also stressed the need for more clarity of intention and coverage like who should benefit whether it is only the children of the poor or the elites should be included.
Mr. Maiyaki added that there should be a clear identification of project to sponsor with a committee set up to fine tune all the issues raised, advising the delegation to also pay advocacy visit to the Petroleum Training Development Fund (PTDF), NELFUND and TETFUND to see how things were done in their own domain.
Meanwhile, the Aliko Dangote Foundation is the private charitable organization of the business mogul, Aliko Dangote. It was incorporated in 1994, as Dangote Foundation, with the mission to enhance opportunities for social change through strategic investments that improve health and wellbeing, promote quality education and broaden economic empowerment opportunities.
It is an established fact that 20 years after its birth, the Dangote Foundation has become the largest private foundation in Sub-Sahara Africa, with the largest endowment by a single African donor.
In the health sector, ADF is committed to directly reaching one million households with community-based management of acute malnutrition, which provides access to improved water and sanitation, improved behavioural change, livelihood support, strengthening locals and the national health system as well as global advocacy by 2025.
On continental partnerships, the ADF vision is not limited to Nigeria. In realising the vision for a better Africa, the Foundation is strategically supporting and working with like-minded international organisations in changing the Africa narratives.
The Foundation recognizes that Education is the bedrock of any successful society and therefore is committed to contributing its quota to the development of education in Africa.
Some of the ADF’s activities include; N1 billion for Nigerian universities including N500 million for development of a business school in Bayero University and N100 million for the proposed Otuoke University in Bayelsa State.
It made another critical intervention in the educational sector when it donated fully equipped rooms with capacity for housing 2160 students, built at a cost of N1.2 billion donated by the Foundation to Ahmadu Bello University, (ABU), Zaria.
After the meeting, the NUC Acting Directors of: Research, Innovations and Information Technology (DRIIT), Mal. Mohammed Lawan Faruk; Students (DoS), Ms. Rita Okojo and Accreditation (DA), Engr. Abraham Chundusu, were nominated to the committee to harmonise with the Dangote team.
Also at the meeting were the ACTING Directors Academic Planning (DAP), Mr. Abubakar Mohammed Girei as well as the representative of the Director of Finance and Accounts (DFA).