ASSESSING THE CHALLENGES OF STUDENTS’ HOSTEL ACCOMMODATION BUILT BY BUILD OPERATE TRANSFER (BOT) IN KADUNA STATE UNIVERSITY

In the year 2004 the Nigerian government decided to relinquish her responsibility of financingtertiary institutions’ hostel accommodation to the private sector. Through National UniversityCommission (NUC), Nigerian government invited the private sector to participate in the provisionof students’ hostel accommodation through Build Operate Transfer (BOT) a variant of PrivatePublic Partnership (PPP) arrangement. After a decade it has been discovered that only a fewhostels have been built in a number of some institutions. What could have stampeded the muchapplauded idea? What issues are therein to address? Could this help the national economicgrowth? Hence, this paper aims at assessing the challenges face by the students and the developersof these hostel accommodations by carrying out a case study of Kaduna State University students’hostel accommodation. The study constructed a set of 66 structured questionnaire, which wereadministered in some student hostels; and a set of 49 questionnaire was designed and administeredto Developers, Student Affairs Division and Physical Planning of the university, which 50 and 30were returned respectively. Data collected were presented through the use of tables, ratios,ranking, averages and percentages. The study revealed that there is a level of dissatisfaction withthe state and condition of the available students’ accommodation facilities which are grosslyinadequate. The inadequacy of the existing facilities has not eradicated the high occupancy ratioand some sanitation challenges that existed before. While the developers feel the concession periodgiven the high cost of construction materials and the equity ratio is hindering them from fullycommitting their resources to the scheme. In any case, this is not good for the national economic.It is recommended that government should bear the equity 9and provide amenities and othernecessary facilities to the hostels and create fair level playing ground for all.