Federal Polytechnic loses over ₦200million to pandemic in 2020

The Federal Polytechnic, Bauchi has said that it lost over ₦200million from the Institution’s Consultancy Services to the COVID-19 pandemic last year.

Managing Director of the Polytechnic Consultancy Services Limited, Ibrahim Labaran stated this on Tuesday in his office while speaking with newsmen on the activities of the Services.

Ibrahim, who was a registrar of the school, said that the polytechnic has 14 investments that include: offering of academic programme, guest inn, printing and publishing firm, block industry, water factory, fishing farm, restaurant, building and civil engineering firm, among others, were badly hit in the year 2020 due to COVID-19.

“Across our business arms in 2017, we were able to generate N105 million, in 2013 it was about N270million, 2014 was N232million, 2016 was N224million but the average is about N200million turnover annually,” Ibrahim said.

“In 2020, we were badly affected by the pandemic because nothing was moving. There was a lockdown and our hotel, which is one the cash cows, did not record a single guest for three months. Our hotel staff were idle but were able to pay them. There was no turnover during the period.”

He said that Polytechnic’s Consultancy Services has been able to avert industrial action from the staff.

According to him, the services approved N30,000 to meet the demands of the staff who was about to down tool in January this year over the unpaid allowance.

Ibrahim said that the services were established in 1998 to provide substantial support for the Polytechnic. According to him, the consultancy has registered about 2,500 students across different departments of the Polytechnic.

Source: Guardian Nigerian Newspaper