UNIOSUN to complete N13bn teaching hospital in 2021, says VC

The Vice-Chancellor of Osun State University, Prof. Labode Popoola, on Thursday, said the university’s N13 billion teaching hospital under construction would be completed by 2021 to serve the medical students of the institution.

Popoola gave the assurance while hosting members of the state House of Assembly’s Committee on Education, who were at the institution’s main campus in Osogbo on oversight inspection of ongoing projects in the school.

The vice-chancellor, while briefing the lawmakers on the activities, projects and developments in the school, said the building of the teaching hospital started in 2018.

He said that the teaching hospital under construction was donated and funded by the school’s Pro-Chancellor, Mrs Folorunsho Alakija and was being built on 30 hectares of land in Osogbo.

He said that 104-capacity hostels were being built in each of the institution’s six campuses across the state.

Popoola, however, said that the institution was facing some financial challenges but had been managing to promptly pay salaries of staff and execute projects.

He told the lawmakers to help appeal to the state government to improve on the ‘state grant’ coming to the institution.

According to him, the grant and the ‘contribution from the local government’ (which forms two of the three means of funding the school) had not been forthcoming.

Popoola said that the state grant the school was receiving had dwindled and the contributions from philanthropists to the institution had stopped totally.

He said that the institution now only survived on Internally Generated Revenue (the third constitutionally-recognised means of funding for the institution).

He appealed to the state government to intervene in the payment of salaries of the institution’s staff.

In his remark, the Chairman of the Osun House Committee on Education, Mr Babatunde Ibirogba, who led other lawmakers on the inspection, said he was impressed with the operation and activities going on in the institution.

Ibirogba said the visit was for the lawmakers to have first-hand information of activities and developmental works going on in the campus and to know where the state lawmakers need to intervene.

He said so far, he was pleased with the management of the institution, especially the vice-chancellor for the developmental strides the school had recorded.

He promised that the state House of Assembly would help the university where necessary, saying that all the contractors handling projects on the institution’s campuses would be put on their toes to ensure they deliver quality works.