By Muhammad Falahu Mukhtar
The Federal University Dutsin-Ma (FUDMA) has commissioned new entrepreneurship development facilities, including a bakery, tailoring, hair-making and dressing, and flex and printing operational units, as part of efforts to equip students and staff with practical skills and promote self-reliance.
The Vice-Chancellor of the university, Prof. Mohammed Khalid Othman, commissioned the facilities at the Entrepreneurship Development Centre, describing the development as a major step in the implementation of the centre’s first-phase development plan.
Prof. Othman said the establishment of the units was aimed at improving the welfare of members of the university and the host community while creating opportunities for students to acquire practical entrepreneurial skills alongside their academic studies.
He said the university was determined to expose students to entrepreneurship training without disrupting their conventional academic programmes.
“The current employment environment requires universities to go beyond conventional academic training by equipping students with entrepreneurial skills to make them productive,” he said.
The Vice-Chancellor noted that the initiative was consistent with the university’s efforts to prepare students to confront socio-economic challenges after graduation and become self-reliant.
He said while government was making efforts to create employment opportunities, the burden could be reduced by providing students with entrepreneurial skills that would enable them to become independent and create jobs for themselves.
Prof. Othman said entrepreneurship had always been an area of personal interest to him, adding that he was surprised by the number of valuable equipment lying idle at the Entrepreneurship Development Centre.
According to him, the discovery prompted the university management to explore ways of putting the facilities into productive use and providing opportunities for both staff and students to acquire entrepreneurial skills.
He also disclosed that the university would allocate time for staff members to attend entrepreneurship training programmes to enable them acquire skills that could improve their income and livelihood.
Earlier, the Director of the Entrepreneurship Development Centre, Dr. Umar Mamman, said several visits to the university’s store had revealed that about 75 per cent of the items kept there were equipment that could be deployed for entrepreneurship training.
He said the centre subsequently secured and deployed a significant number of the equipment for the training of students, leading to the establishment of the four operational units commissioned by the Vice-Chancellor.
Dr. Mamman said the initiative was part of a deliberate effort to activate idle resources for the benefit of members of the FUDMA community and residents of the host community.
He said the facilities would enable the university to equip students with practical skills, encourage them to establish enterprises, generate employment and contribute to the university’s internally generated revenue.
“The Entrepreneurship Centre is committed to delivering quality and affordable products and services within and outside the university,” he said.
He added that the centre also planned to expose students to series of training programmes that would prepare them for independence and employment after graduation.
The commissioning ceremony featured the unveiling of products and services of the various units, with members of the university management and other participants inspecting the facilities.
The development marks another step in FUDMA’s efforts to promote practical entrepreneurship, strengthen internal revenue generation and provide students and staff with skills that could create sustainable economic opportunities beyond the university environment.
