UNIBEN Launches N100 billion Trust Development Fund

“The future sustainability and global competitiveness of our tertiary institutions will increasingly depend on stronger alumni engagement, strategic partnerships, and private sector participation,”

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Dr Alausa stated. “This bold initiative sends a powerful message that Nigerian universities are prepared to take leadership and embrace innovative models of institutional development.”

The 11th substantive Vice-Chancellor of UNIBEN, Prof. Edoba Omoregie, SAN, noted that the hyper-ambitious fund was modelled directly after enduring global endowment systems like that of the University of Oxford.

Recalling his assumption of office, Omoregie highlighted that rapidly expanding student enrollment has broken existing facilities, citing a recent crisis where the institution suffered a three-month public power disconnection due to inherited utility debts.

Alumni Networks Urged to Safeguard Institutional Legacies

The Chairman of the occasion and former Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, SAN, challenged the university’s massive graduate network to take absolute responsibility for preserving the institution’s historic legacy.

“The founders have done their job. The alumni now take responsibility,” Fashola remarked, using lighthearted humour to drive financial commitments.

“We have produced over 350,000 graduates. If just 250,000 of them donate N100,000 each, we would realise N25 billion—a quarter of the entire target.”

To ensure absolute financial transparency and combat institutional scepticism, the university’s ICT unit deployed a live tracking portal during the event.

The website enables donors, corporate entities, and global partners to monitor real-time contributions, track specific project construction stages, and verify asset distributions.