Under UNICEF Green Rising Project, students plant over 2000 trees in ABU
More than 2000 trees have been planted in Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria under the UNICEF Green Rising Project.
The trees were planted on a five-hectare land provided by the authorities of the institution. The site was located behind the university dam around the Tudun Sarki community.
The UNICEF Green Rising Project is a student-centred programme aimed at encouraging students to be environmentally friendly.
The tree planting was held in two batches.
The first batch of the exercise during which students planted over 1000 trees took place on Saturday, 21st June, 2025 with the Vice-Chancellor, Prof Adamu Ahmed, participating.
The second batch of the tree planting project was carried out on Tuesday, 24th June, 2025 with more than 1000 trees planted additionally by students.
The UNICEF student-centred project consists mainly of capacity building, tree planting, as well as plastic and polythene waste recycling.
A capacity building workshop was earlier organised for students of the university under the UNICEF Green Rising Project on 1st March, 2025.
Speaking at the last batch of the tree planting exercise on Tuesday, 24th June, 2025, the Dean, Student Affairs Division, Prof. Sahalu B Junaidu, urged students to follow the planting instructions diligently so that the trees would grow as intended.
Prof Sahalu emphasized that they were merely there to spectate as the UNICEF Green Rising project was driven by students.
The Dean explained that it was the final day of the planting, but there would be subsequent visits to check the progress of the planted trees.
Also speaking, the Staff Officer, Student Affairs Division, Usman Shehu Lawal, encouraged students to be environmentally friendly.
Lawal said UNICEF was committed to ensuring the success of the project, hence the incentive to participating students to encourage commitment.
A good number of students equally spoke at the occasion, and expressed profound appreciation to the UNICEF and the university for the project.
Abdullahi Baraka Abdurrahman, a student of the Department of Chemistry, expressed gratitude for the opportunity.
She described the occasion as memorable, saying she had never planted a tree before and she now thanked UNICEF for the opportunity to plant many trees.
Also commenting, a 300-Level student of Biological Science, Zulaiha Muhammed, said “human activities reduce the quality of oxygen, therefore, planting more trees will increase the quality of air we breathe”.
Yahaya Ashafa, a student from the Faculty of Agriculture, appreciated UNICEF for the initiative.
According to him, “agroforestry is a way of mitigating climate change because trees and plants are cultivated in the same field, which has many benefits to the soil and environment”.
In her remarks, Rabiat Saidu, a student of Botany, thanked UNICEF for the opportunity as she had never planted before, but now she was able to plant almost 6 trees.
The highlight of the event was traditional drummers serenading the crowd as trees were being planted.
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Public Affairs Directorate,
Office of the Vice-Chancellor,
Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria (SBG)
Wednesday, 25th June, 2025
