Nigerian billionaire Abdul Samad Rabiu donates $183,000 building to Sokoto university

Nigerian billionaire Abdul Samad Rabiu's foundation, ASR Africa, has handed over a ₦250 million ($183,000) administrative building to the College of Health Sciences at Usmanu Danfodiyo University in Sokoto, in northwestern Nigeria.

The building, named the Abdul Samad Rabiu Admin Block, was commissioned at a ceremony at the college, which sits inside the Usmanu Danfodiyo University Teaching Hospital complex. It has 20 staff offices, including one for the head of department, along with a panel room, staff restrooms and storage space.

ASR Africa broke ground on the project in April 2024 under its Tertiary Education Grants Scheme, which funds buildings and equipment at Nigerian universities.

Bashir Garba, the university's vice chancellor, called the gift historic and said the new offices helped the medical school during an accreditation review by the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria, the body that licenses medical training in the country.

Ubon Udoh, ASR Africa's managing director and chief executive officer, represented Rabiu at the event. He said the building was one of 30 grants the foundation has made to 30 Nigerian universities, and that the university had scored highly in the foundation's assessment. ASR Africa's university grants have ranged from ₦250 million to ₦2 billion ($1.47 million).

A pattern of campus buildings

The Sokoto gift follows a similar ₦250 million administrative block ASR Africa handed to Al-Qalam University in Katsina state in July 2025. The foundation has also built a ₦1 billion ($733,000) innovation and entrepreneurship center at the University of Maiduguri, a ₦310 million student hostel at the Federal University of Technology, Minna, and a ₦270 million sports complex at the University of Jos.

Its health spending includes commitments of ₦2.5 billion ($1.83 million) each to an oncology and diagnostic center in Kwara state, a mother and child hospital in Ogun state and medical sciences buildings at Sokoto State University.

Sokoto is familiar ground for Rabiu. BUA Cement Plc, which absorbed the former Cement Company of Northern Nigeria, runs a plant at Kalambaina near the city, and Rabiu gave ₦200 million to Sokoto State University in 2021.

Rabiu, 66, set up ASR Africa in 2021 with $100 million a year, split equally between Nigeria and the rest of Africa, to fund projects in health, education and social development. He is the founder and chairman of BUA Group, a conglomerate with interests in cement, food, infrastructure and agriculture, and controls the Lagos-listed BUA Cement and BUA Foods Plc. Forbes put his net worth at $11.1 billion on its 2026 world billionaires list, making him Nigeria's second-richest person.

Figures were converted at ₦1,365 to the dollar.