The newly established Muhammad Kamaludeen University (MKU), Ilorin, Kwara State, has matriculated its first set of 146 students, announcing that the freshers would have the opportunity of $1,000 startup for the registration of their new companies to grow their entrepreneurship skills.
The vice chancellor of the university, Prof. Rasheed Jimoh, said that the institution had developed an innovative course that would equip the new students with MKU’s startup of over $1,000 USD even before registration of their proposed companies.
He said the university has introduced initiatives that will equip the students for critical thinking to enable them cope with global competitiveness, especially in the emerging gig economy.
The Kwara State governor, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, was represented at the event by his senior adviser/counselor, Alh Saadu Salahu, who was supported by a non-executive director of NNPCL, Dr Ghali Alaaya; special adviser on Media, Alh. Bashir Adigun, and senior special assistant on Religion (Islam), Alh. Ibrahim Danmaigoro.
The vice chancellor added: “One of such initiatives was the development of innovative courses such as MKU-GS 112 – Initiative thinking and idea creation, purposely to equip our students right from their first semester with necessary entrepreneurship and innovative skills for seamless navigation of emerging gig economy.
“As a follow-up to this course, the university shall facilitate registration of startup companies for the selected viable ideas generated by teams of students through Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) and assist the startup to scale through investments in the companies. The goal is to achieve MKU’s startup with over 1000 USD before registration. The management engaged an expert outside Nigeria to teach this course.”
Prof. Jimoh said the university had taken off with 15 academic programmes approved by the National Universities Commission (NUC), assuring that by October this year, another set of students will be admitted for additional new programmes.
The matriculation ceremony also featured the investiture of the Emir of Ilorin, Alh. Ibrahim Sulu-Gambari, as the Chancellor of the University and Prof. Shuaib AbdulRaheem as the Pro-chancellor of the university.
In his remarks, the chancellor of the university, Alh. Ibrahim Sulu-Gambari, urged those seeking university admission to take advantage of the uniqueness of MKU.
The monarch paid glowing tribute to the founder of Ansarul Islam Society of Nigeria, the late Sheikh Muhammad Kamaldeen Al-Adabbiy, for fusing Islamic education with Western education which eventually culminated in the establishment of MKU in his memory.