Gov Bago declares tuition-free education for 809 new students at Abdulkadir Kure University

Niger State Governor, Farmer Mohammed Umaru Bago, has announced tuition-free education for all 809 newly admitted students of the Abdulkadir Kure University, Minna (AKUM) for the 2024/2025 academic session.

Governor Bago made the declaration during the university’s matriculation ceremony, where he reaffirmed his administration’s commitment to expanding access to quality education and supporting the growth of state-owned institutions.

In addition to the tuition-free initiative, the governor revealed that 2% of the state’s total investment will be dedicated as an endowment fund for the university. This, he explained, is part of a broader strategy to ensure sustainable funding for academic development, research, and infrastructural growth.

The farmer governor said the state is willing to come up with initiatives that will make the university blossom and become a model to others; hence, he has cancelled the decision to send students abroad on scholarship.

“It is not wrong for a leader to make a statement and retract the statement. We had a vision to take some students to foreign land on scholarship, but today, I have cancelled that decision. I will rather invest the money budgeted for the foreign scholarship here,” he said.

He said a housing estate for staff and lecturers will be built, and that Medicine and Medical Sciences will commence from the next academic session.

He congratulated the matriculated students and urged them to be good ambassadors of their families and promised them a bursary of N100,000 each.

The Vice Chancellor of AKUM, Prof. Mohammed Aliyu Paiko, said the 809 students should see their matriculation as the commencement of a transformative experience that will shape their future, adding that the institution intends to equip its students with skills and innovative mindsets to enable them to become job creators and build enterprises.

He acknowledged the efforts of Farmer Governor, especially with his green economy initiative, which has resonated globally in response to climate issues, and stated that AKUM is keying into that initiative to produce students that would pioneer sustainable agriculture, biotechnology, medical environmental sciences, ICT, AI, and renewable energy, among others, to ensure environmental stability.

The Pro Chancellor of AKUM, Prof. Muhammad Yahaya Kuta, described Farmer Governor Umaru Bago as a visionary who has not only keyed into infrastructural development but is also investing in the younger generation through education, pointing out that the knowledge industry is ruling the world.