Lagos State Government has restated its commitment to significantly improving infrastructure within the Lagos State University.
The government added that such infrastructural development would serve as a launch pad for LASU’s transformation into a world-class institution.
Commissioner for Works and Infrastructure, Dr. Obafemi Hamzat, said this while delivering a paper titled, ‘The place of Infrastructural Development in the Transformation of Tertiary Education’ at the 3rd International Conference of Faculty of Education, according to a statement on Sunday.
The commissioner explained that the government was desirous of leveraging on the relationship between “human capital, public infrastructure and structural transformation” to achieve its goals for the institution.
He added that the Babatunde Fashola administration believed that tertiary education was the driving force behind growth.
He said, “The Lagos State Government is willing and ready to capitalise on the positive correlation between Human Capital, Public Infrastructure and Structural Transformation. The administration’s commitment stems from a belief that tertiary education is a driving force of growth.”
Hamzat, however, said despite the commitment of the administration to LASU’s growth and the subvention allocated to it, it was impossible for government to solely fund and maintain the institution.
He urged the university to prepare for competition in its bid to become self sustaining like every other institution.
The commissioner said getting funding sources and financing mechanisms was a characteristic of mature and well-developed tertiary education system, adding that the government was already developing such a mechanism.
He advised that a virile consultancy unit that targets providing technical services to government and private establishments would also open LASU up to huge sources of revenue through payment made for such services.
He called on the academia to take seriously its responsibility of proffering solutions to the myriad of challenges besetting the nation saying, “It is the only way you can lay claim to being the conscience and leaders of the society.”
