Don urges govt to address ease of doing business challenges

Vice Chancellor, Trinity University, Yaba Lagos, Prof. Charles Ayo, has urged government to tackle challenges of ease of doing business in order to assist higher education, start-ups and generate more Foreign Direct Investment.

Speaking at a carol service organised on campus recently, he said that when one talks about challenges facing higher education, they are enormous.

According to him, when talking about the ease of doing business and you don’t have electricity, water, transportation or good road network, life would not be meaningful not only in the educational sector but also for start-ups.

Specifically, he said: “If you look around our campus, we have close to six generating sets to make sure we provide power. If you look at the Internet, it is virtually the most expensive because of what the providers go through like paying for Right of Way to get in here and we just hope things will get better. If the government is able to rise to the occasion by giving us basic necessities of life, then it would be easier for all and sundry.”

Similarly, Pro-Chancellor, Pastor Samuel Olatunji, said it is expedient for the government to provide loan facilities for students’ education.

According to him, “it is unfortunate that we give loans to buy cars or build houses but there is no facility for people to educate themselves.”

Speaking further, he said there are interventions for famers, politicians and those in the creative sector, “where is the intervention for education, especially at the tertiary level?” He asked.

He added that higher education is by far the most expensive.

He said: “You need billions of naira to commence. You need to get all facilities to commence from day one.”

Continuing, he said the belief that graduates should become entrepreneurs is easier said than done, as business is not easy to establish all over the world.