A financial firm, Alpha Morgan Capital, has remodelled the Prof. Adetokunbo Sofoluwe Park at the University of Lagos, UNILAG.
Outgoing Vice Chancellor, Prof. Toyin Ogundipe, said the effort of the company was in line with the policy of his administration which encourages corporate bodies and interested individuals to pick a project, or pick a person to invest in.
He said the park was unique as it was named after the 10th substantive VC of the institution who was also a unique person.
He hailed the company for also providing lighting for the facility.
The Group Managing Director of Alpha Morgan, Mr. Ade Buraimo, said the company had made arrangement for the maintenance of the facility for the nex five years.
He lauded the management team of the institution for being supportive during the project.
At the library complex, Ogundipe said what Alpha Morgan proposed to do would raise the profile of the facility which he described as number one in the country.
He noted that today’s students prefer to study in unconventional ways.
Buraimo said the intervention of his company would help fault the claim in some quarters that if you want to hide anything from the black man, write it in a book.
Speaking at the Main Library, the University Librarian, Professor Yetunde Zaid, was full of gratitude to the Alpha Morgan Capital for the commitment to the project.
Prof Zaid noted that the motive of the Makerspace and remodelling project is to convert the UNILAG library into a more lively, innovative, creative, intellectually stimulating and engaging space for users.
Meanwhile, the event also marked the flag-off of the proposed Makerspace and remodelling of the University Library lobby by the Alpha Morgan Capital.
A makerspace is a collaborative work space inside a school,library for learning through high tech tools.
The University Librarian, Prof. Yetunde Zaid noted that the purpose of the Makerspace and remodelling of the library lobby would make the library more useful for library users. She also said plans were underway to make the library less of paper and more of technology.
“Students càn come into the library to create, innovate and collaborate. They can also share practical knowledge of what they have learnt in class. The other facilities will harbour things that are high-tech facilities, available for users.”
She also lauded the VC for his roles in deploying facilities to encourage t visually-impaired students and to make the library more accommodating for them.
“We are actually the first university in West Africa to have an AI deployed to library services, courtesy of the Vice Chancellor. We have a VC who is a friend of the library. Under his leadership, the library has experienced so much transformation in terms of services to students and staff. A lot of the visually- impaired students now prefer o come to the library. In 2016 before the Vice Chancellor came into office, we have only 16 of them. But as of today we have 64 visually- impaired students in UNILAG. This is because of the services the library is offering to support them in terms of learning, teaching and scholarship,” she added.