The Federal University of Transportation Daura, Katsina State, has matriculated its pioneer students, numbering 478, for the 2023/2024 academic session.

 The matriculation ceremony, which took place at the permanent site of the university in Daura on Saturday, was witnessed by the Minister of Transportation, Senator Ahmed Alkali and other dignitaries.

The minister urged the students to take advantage of the unique opportunity to acquire knowledge with a sense of diligence to contribute towards the development of the country’s economy.

He also commended the people and government of Katsina State for their generous hospitality in hosting the university.

MrAlkali also extolled their commitment in supporting its effective operations, especially at the critical period of its physical development.

The minister said, “I want to personally commend the culture of consolidating previous federal and state governments’ commitments towards the university by Governor Dikko Radda. After our inauguration as ministers on August 21, 2023, I led a team and visited the university in October 2023. It was only the vice chancellor that was on ground without a single academic or support staff. Notwithstanding this apparent challenge, I made a declaration of ensuring the take off of the University for 2023/2024 academic session. In furtherance of this commitment, all efforts, processes, networks, contacts and collaborations were utilised, which secured the appointment of the mentor university and other principal officers.”

According to him, he was able to also secure the placement of the university on the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board portal.

Mr Alkali said that this created an easy platform for the first admission exercise and perfection of relevant documents in related offices.

 In addition, he commended CCECC Nigeria Limited, the company that built the university for executing some corporate social responsibility projects.

 “It may interest you to note that the university was placed on TETFund’s intervention for the execution of capital projects against the 2025 financial year. More significantly, President Bola Tinubu has graciously approved the financing of the University under the 2024 Appropriation (Repeal and Enactment) Act. I wish these young, but prosperous university students a successful academic life,” the minister said.

 Earlier, the pioneer Vice-Chancellor of the university, Prof. Umar Adam-Katsayal, said that JAMB had approved a total quota of 500 candidates for its admission for the 2023/2024 academic session.

He said, “Based on that approval, we widely advertised and called for candidates that scored the approved National Minimum Tolerable Marks for admission into Nigerian Universities during the 2023 JAMB. They must equally be interested in building a career in the transportation industry, hence they can apply for admission via the university’s portal. The call was overwhelmingly responded to with 1,250 candidates, which made us request for an addition of 10 per cent of the given quota from the JAMB, which was graciously granted. At the end of the screening and registration exercises, a total of 478 candidates were successfully registered across the 14 programmes and pursuing their academic activities.’’

(NAN)