New Nigerian Newspapers Online Edition

In order to foster continuing education and encourage capacity building amongst working class residents of the Federal Capital Territory , the FCT Administration has concluded plans to establish a City University in Abuja.

Federal Capital Territory, (FCT) Minister, Dr. Aliyu Modibbo Umar who made this disclosure said it formed part of decisions taken at the last council meeting of the FCTA, and also said it is the first of its kind in Africa, while stating that the Administration will soon set up a Committee to deal with its preliminary work including feasibility studies on the project to ensure that the dream is realized within a short time.

The Minister also said that the proposed City University will only offer courses in management sciences to take care of the needs of the workers that would like to further their education without going out of their working environment.

“The FCT Administration is already working on the blue print of the proposed University to give it a semblance of what is obtainable in other world class cities like London and New York”, he said

Modibbo, similarly revealed that the FCT Administration has already put a machinery in motion to raise over N2 billion from the Organized Private Sector to fund the University’s take-off and its eventual development, just as he revealed that as the name depicts, the University will not have residential accommodation or hostels, stating that the only structures that will be built are the lecture theatres and administrative blocks, adding that the students will study and go back to their residential houses at the end of the day.

The Minister remarked that a suitable site of about three to five hectares of land will be earmarked for the University in the Abuja metropolis, said, “We will tour the world to recruit the best hands to take charge of the planned University, bearing in mind that we are preparing to be one of the greatest twenty cities of the world by the year 2020”.

The Minister gave assurance that the Abuja City University when completed will boast of the best teaching aids and staff in the world since the best brains will be put to task.