Prof. Aloysius-Michaels Okolie, the Vice Chancellor (VC), Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT), says his administration inherited N1 billion on assumption of office,

Mr Okolie said this at a news conference on Thursday in Agbani campus of the institution, to mark his 365 days (one year) in office.

“A debt of over N1billion, accumulation of convocation since 2016, unpaid two months staff salaries, other arrears, poor network and other humanitarians needs were inherited,” he said.

According to him, over N1 billion was inherited on his assumption of office, out of which he had spent N124,143,696.64 in 2022 on repayment of debt.

The VC said the institution receives a total of N204,000,000 as subvention, adding that N136,000,000 comes from the state government while each Local Government Area (LGA) contributes N4 million.

“At present, some LGAs have reneged on payments by specified months and the total indebtedness arising from the non-payments amounts to N184,000,000.

“Even when the total subvention is paid in full, the management must augment to the tune of nearly N200 million to pay the monthly salaries of workers.

“It is heartwarming to note that through prudent management of the available resources, we have succeeded in reducing the institution wage bill to N40 million currently,” he said.

He said the management was doing everything possible to better the working condition of the staff and create a better learning environment for students in spite of paucity of funds.

He noted that digitisation of the institution would help to improve the welfare of students and members of staff.

“We are making efforts to digitalise our records and migrate to a new platform for handling transcripts, but this is currently at the teething period.

“MTN has almost finished laying fibre cables within and around the campus and we are hopeful that the full 4G network will be launched before the end of the month.

“This is to provide free WiFi for students in designated areas,” the VC said.

Mr Okolie was appointed VC on April 4, 2022, and assumed office on April 12.

(NAN)