According to Mr Okolie, the debt was incurred from the accumulation of convocation since 2016, unpaid two months of staff salaries, other arrears, poor network, and other humanitarian needs. The institution receives a total of N204,000,000 as subvention, of which N136,000,000 comes from the state government while each Local Government Area (LGA) contributes N4 million.
However, some LGAs have reneged payments by specified months, leading to total indebtedness arising from the non-payment of N184,000,000. Despite the challenges, Mr Okolie disclosed that the management had spent N124,143,696.64 in 2022 to repay debts out of the inherited N1 billion.
He further explained that the institution's monthly salary wage bill had been reduced to N40 million currently due to prudent management of available resources. "Even when the total subvention is paid in full, the management must augment to the tune of nearly N200 million to pay the monthly salaries of workers," he added.
The Vice-Chancellor stated that his administration was doing everything possible to better the working condition of the staff and create a better learning environment for students despite the paucity of funds. He added that digitization of the institution would help to improve the welfare of students and members of staff.
"We are making efforts to digitalize our records and migrate to a new platform for handling transcripts, but this is currently at the teething period," he said. MTN has almost finished laying fibre cables within and around the campus, and we are hopeful that the full 4G network will be launched before the end of the month to provide free WiFi for students in designated areas," he added.
Mr Okolie was appointed VC on April 4, 2022, and assumed office on April 12.