The emergence of open and distance education was a result of a combination of factors which are prevalent at both global and local levels. Principal among such factors are the two explosions namely, population and information. While the former was a function of the geometrical increase in birth rate, especially in developing nations, the later was occasioned by the revolution in information and communication technology. A third factor is the fact of the preponderance of knowledge-based economy that has accentuated competitvenss in life based on skill and professionalism, a phenomenon that generated greater need for lifelong and continuing education. In the Nigerian situation just like in all developing countries, population explosion has engendered an unprecedented and monumental rise in the social demand for education in the face of diminished carrying capacities in higher institutions of learning, especially the universities. The need for diversifying the opportunities for access to education became not only obvious but very compelling. Besides the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN), a number of conventional universities have been compelled by the combined reasons above to introduce Open and Distance Education. This paper expounds the policies formulated, institutional arrangements made, the human resource engagement and development strategies employed and other necessary measures taken in Bayero University, Kano for the purpose of instituting its Distance Education Programme. // Paper ID: 350