Unilag hands 161-bed medical students’ hostel site to Colton

The University of Lagos (UNILAG) has moved to expand students’ housing capacity by handing over the site for over 161-bedspace for the medical students’ hostel to Colton Construction Limited.

The development aligned with the Renewal Hope Agenda of President Bola Tinubu’s efforts to strengthen infrastructure in Nigeria’s tertiary education sector.

Folasade Ogunsola, the vice-chancellor at UNILAG, speaking at the official handing over of the site to Colton Construction Limited held on Wednesday, at the Idi-Araba annex of the university, expressed her delight that with the new development, the institution is taking the needed steps to train and retaining medical workforce in Nigeria.

“The country has a challenge in retaining its health care workforce, and it behoves us to also train more; the need for more health care workforce has been one that’s been for a very long time.

“For a country of 226 million people, having only 150 doctors, and about 50 nurses out of the University of Lagos in a year is not the best; we’re constrained by the infrastructure, because you can’t train health care personnel without having a hostel close to a hospital, because they go for call at night, ” she said.

Ogunsola further emphasised that the health care workforce cannot be trained adequately without faculty, labs and classrooms, because it is a very hands-on mentorship-based programme.

The vice-chancellor reiterated that the training for the health care workforce is not just about whether a student passes or fails, but whether such a student is safe to be unleashed on the public.

“I’m really happy that we’re here today, and we were here to hand over the site for lecture theatres,” she said.

She described the proposed hostels as high premium, with about 161 bed-spaces, but could be doubled. Besides, she said that every room is designed to have its own bathroom and toilet for maximum comfort.

The vice-chancellor noted that the contractors are expected within two years, though she expects them to deliver within 18 months.

She applauded the federal government for investing in Nigeria’s health care workforce.

“As a country, we need them, and look forward to much more being done to have the right ratios of health care workforce to population,” she noted.

Collins Balogun, the director and managing partner of Colton Construction Limited, explained that the goal of the ultra-modern hostels is to increase the number of medical doctors in the country.

“Over the years, Nigeria has been experiencing brain drains in the medical sector, hence, President Bola Tinubu has given a marching order that universities should be producing a minimum of 20,000 medical doctors every year.

“To achieve this, the infrastructure has to be improved on, the hostel as can be seen from the 3D displayed, is going to be four beds in a room,” he said.

Balogun highlighted that the project is a federal government initiative, which falls under direct instruction of the president to increase the total number of medical doctors in Nigeria.

Anthony Ajulo, director at Colton Construction Limited, affirms the company is committed to delivering a good job within the allotted time.

“The vice-chancellor has said, we should do better, hence we are hoping to deliver even before the appointed time, but to deliver ahead of time, we will need the help of the university, because it’s a symbiotic relationship.

“There are certain approvals that will be needed at every stage, so as soon as we have these approvals from such departments as procurement, and accounting, we can move fast enough,” he assured.

Speaking of the expertise of the firm, he said the company has worked in quite a few other universities in the Northern region.

“This is the first time we are working in UNILAG, and we want to become a reference contractor also in this institution,” he stated.

Ademola Oremusi, the provost of the College of Medicine at the University of Lagos, in his address praise the federal government for its intervention in providing the infrastructure needed to train health care workforce across public tertiary institutions in Nigeria.

“The government has rejected all programmes that needed quick intervention in terms of training for many reasons including the fact that there has been a net migration towards the global north of our health workforce.

“Last week, we had the handing of our site for auditorium, lecture theatres, rooms and laboratories; and today, we’re here for the intervention in terms of hostel accommodation, for the different programmes, nursing, dentistry, medicine and surgery and pharmacy, ” he noted.