Prof. Adedeji Daramola, Rector, Redeemers College of Technology and Management (RECTEM), said on Saturday that billions of naira were invested by the church to set up the college, to enhance national technological advancement.
Daramola said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on the sidelines of the maiden matriculation of the pioneer students of the college at the Redemption Camp, Lagos-Ibadan expressway.
NAN reports that RECTEM on Feb. 1 began operation with the matriculation of 52 pioneer students from nine Schools for the 2018/2019 academic session.
The Schools, which are of international standard, are duly approved by the National Board of Technical Education (NBTE)
The nine schools are Computer Science, Science and Laboratory Technology, Business Administration, Accountancy, Computer Engineering, Electrical/Electronic Engineering, Architectural Technology, Estate Management and Quality Surveying, while approval for Civil Engineering by NBTE was at its final stage.
“The Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) has invested heavily on RECTEM and when I say heavily, I am talking in terms of billions of naira.
“The General Overseer, Pastor E.A Adeboye, has a clear concept of what he wanted in terms of the quality of the technological education needed,’’ he said.
Daramola said the college libraries, workshops and laboratories needed for the operation have been equipped with current technological equipment that are of international standard.
He said the NBTE accreditation was very thorough and no private individual or institutions that were interested in making profit would venture into engineering programmes because they were expensive.
According to him, just one equipment needed for the programme runs into millions of naira and about 200 of such equipment were required to start out.
“We did not just start, it took us about four to five years to handle this project and it was just about three months ago that we got the license from NBTE to commence.
“NBTE came about three times before we were certified to commence operation.
“Our workshops are well-equipped, the quality of our training is high and we are not compromising the quality of our students.
“A College of Technology does not need to recruit a professor to be its Rector but because they wanted the best, that was why I was recruited from my former institution which is Caleb University,” he said.
The Rector emphasised that the quality of its training would be industry-focused, practical oriented, as the college would be training the middle level manpower.
He said: “these are people that would be handling the site, laboratories, workshops, research institutions and will be in charge of technology.
According to him, the college was one of the private institutions in the country that was running full engineering courses from inception.
Daramola told NAN that the tuition fees were about N190, 000 which was reasonably affordable, compared with other private institutions around the globe. (NAN)