By Ayodele Oni
Authorities of the Yaba College of Technology say they are fully ready for the transformation of the premier technological college into a full-fledged University of Technology with 200 PhD holders.
The Rector, Dr Ibrahim Abdul, disclosed that legislative steps are being taken to give legal teeth to the proposed university.
“We are in the process of getting to the final laps. Let me call it ‘the final act of this Conversion.’
“That has to do with the necessary legislative steps. And, the next legislative steps have started; the National Assembly will wrap it up.
“Once the legislative step is complete, the take-off will begin. So we are rounding up very soon,”
Established in 1947, President Bola Tinubu approved the conversion of Yaba College of Technology (YABATECH) to a university in February 2025.
The federal government began the final steps for this upgrade in November 2025, confirming the institution’s transition from a polytechnic to a university.
The conversion was initiated to leverage the institution’s high capacity, including over 200 staff members with doctorate degrees
Dr Ismail Bidmus, the College’s Deputy Rector (Academic), also told The news Zenith in an exclusive interview with at the weekend in Lagos that the college management is enthusiastically making all arrangements to transform the college into a university.
“We are trying to transition to university, and we have been on it for a long time. You know we are a public polytechnic; we are still on it.
Dr Ismail Badmus, Deputy Rector (ACAD), Yaba College of Technology”
However, we run affiliated programmes with the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) in the area of technical education, but you know they award degrees.
“Our eyes are on becoming the University of Technology and Vocational Studies. We have a presidential order that is yet to be implemented.”
Asked how fully ready the college management is for becoming a degree-awarding institution, Bidmus noted that to run a university, the first thing to look for is the number of those with doctoral degrees.
“Today, YabaTech has 199 doctoral degree holders. We have the manpower, we have the experience, and we have the facilities that we can think of for a federal institution.
“Of course, the school is landlocked. If you look at the size of our campus, we have another one at Epe.
“Actually, Epe houses two schools: the School of Agricultural Technology and the School of Technical Education and two other departments from here.
“These are the Department of Tourism Management Technology and the Department of Agricultural Technology and Environmental Engineering.
“We are the toast of the town, the name is a brand; we cannot reasonably think about horizontal expansion, we are going vertical.
“In the near future, you are going to be seeing skyscrapers in YabaTech, and as a matter of fact, we have about thirteen-storey buildings approved to be erected, but there is no space.
“On our side, we are ready. In fact, if you do not have a PhD from YabaTech today, you feel out of place as a lecturer.
“That is why apart from TETFUND, we are trying to institutionalise study leave with pay and sponsorship to encourage people to go for their PhD,’’ Bidmus said.
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