FG Unveils N250bn Hostel Projects, Starts with YABATECH, LASU

…with 24 PPP hostels, between 1,200 to 1,500 capacity bed spaces

The federal government has unveiled a N250 billion public-private partnership (PPP) initiative to develop student hostels across the country.

Tunji Alausa, the minister of Education, made this known recently when he stated that the federal government has earmarked approximately N250 billion for the construction of hostels in tertiary institutions across the country this year.

Speaking at the soil-turning ceremony of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) hostel development intervention projects at the Lagos State University, LASU, and Yaba College of Technology, YABATECH, Alausa said the administration of President Bola Tinubu is zealous about the empowerment of youth, hence, giving political and financial support to invest in the younger generations.

Giving the breakdown of the N250 billion to be spent in the building of new hostels, the minister said: “We are spending N100 billion, N2 billion each to build 500 spaces of student hotels in over 50 tertiary institutions.

“We are also building 24 PPP hostels with a capacity of at least 1,200 to 1,500 bed spaces across 24 tertiary institutions in the country. Of which LASU is a beneficiary.”

He emphasised that a typical example of the PPP is that the federal government TETFUND will bring N1 billion, and the private investors will bring another N3 billion.

“That translates into about another N96 billion to build 24 hostels across 24 institutions. And we are also spending another N1 billion to deliver at least 300 bed spaces of hostels in another 24 tertiary institutions in the country.

So, all in all, cumulatively, we are spending about N250 billion in just 2026 alone to deliver world-class, high-standard student accommodation hostels across all our various tertiary institutions in the country, both federal and state,” the minister said.

Moreover, Alausa, speaking on the completion of these hostels, explained, “These are projects that we are fast-tracking in a way that starts delivering comfort to the students as soon as possible.

For the PPP hostels, the completion period is 24 months. For the over 200 billion hostels, we have a completion period of less than 12 months.”

Tolani Sule, the commissioner for tertiary education in Lagos State, said the promises of the federal government to LASU, especially in the provision of uninterrupted power supply, would save the institution from spending N200 million yearly on diesel and fuel.

Ibraheem Abdul, the rector at YABATECH, in his speech, described the accommodation challenge at the institution as having reached a pandemic level.

“We have about 36,000 student population, and we have hostel bed spaces of about 2,600. Even as we speak, we have to lock down one of the hostels having about 1,000 bed spaces for renovation.

“The shortfall is huge. This project is going to help us alleviate the challenge to some extent. We are thankful to President Bola Tinubu and our Honourable Minister for this gesture,” he said.