By Ikenna Nwokedi
UNIZIK Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Charles Esimone, FAS, and Anambra Billionaire Businessman,Chief Sir Ikenna Okafor (Ide Akwaeze) on Thursday, 13th April 2023 performed the foundation stone laying of the UNIZIK Business School (UBS) Ultra modern building, ANAMBRA PEOPLE reports.
The new building when completed is expected to provide space for conducive academic interaction as well as make available classrooms, office space for assistant directors and facilitators of the UNIZIK Business School.
In his address during the foundation stone laying, UNIZIK Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Esimone eulogized the benefactor, Chief Okafor for provision of the take off funds to the tune 100 million Naira in the new year when he hosted members of the University Management and Governing Council at his palatial home in Akwaeze.
Prof. Esimone described Chief Okafor as a man with milk of kindness who has contributed so much to the development of his community and is steadily extending his philanthropy to the University Community. The Vice-Chancellor appreciated the Director of UBS and his team for the giant strides they are making towards turning UBS to a Business Education Destination.
Prof. Esimone stated that he anticipates the completion of the building before the end of his tenure while also expressing hope that the building when completed will give the UBS the required mileage in its global relevance.
In his remarks, the benefactor, Chief Okafor stated that the gesture was informed by the need to promote knowledge especially in the area of business education which has suffered neglect, emphasizing the need for business education to be done with a business mindset.
Okafor said: “It is my wish to propagate knowledge as knowledge not shared will perish. Business education has been neglected and many people prefer to choose other professions which now creates a void as the society now have a lot of persons without business ideas with the hunger and passion to venture into business. I have training in business school, and I know what is required to do business having received training from one of the best schools in the world.
“I am challenging UBS to develop a curriculum that should be domiciled in our environment and the UBS should possess the traits and capacity to teach local and practical skills that students can relate to, so that when they go outside the shores of our country, they can excel very well. It is my wish to partner UBS as a way of giving back to society and we will do much more in the university in the future”, Chief Okafor said.
On his part, the Director of UBS, Prof. Emma Okoye, said the gesture was occasioned by the need for UBS to come up at par with similar institutions following global benchmarking for business education as provided by international quality assurance and rating organizations to which UBS subscribes to its membership.
The UBS Director revealed that UBS belongs to three global quality assurance bodies namely, the Johannesburg based Association of African Business School (AABS), Brussels based Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) and the London based Business Graduates Association (BGA) all of which has put UBS on the pedestal in the quest to be in line with global best practices of business education.
Prof. Okoye thanked the benefactor for donating the take off fund, and expressed optimism that it would be completed in record time with his support and help from other well-meaning Nigerians.
In his reaction, the Site Engineer and Contractor, Engr. Christian Ezenwafor described the building as one with two suspended floors usually known as two-storey building which is two times the existing building of the UBS. He stated that the building will have a mini-hall with 500 seating capacity, offices for the Director, Deputy Directors and several officers of the UBS with accompanying classrooms for executive programmes of the UBS.
Engr. Ezenwafor anticipated that the entire project will be completed within 14 months as the structural aspect will take about 10 months while the interior decoration will take 4 months to be completed. He emphasized that upon completion the anticipated ultra modern building of the UBS will be one of the best infrastructure in the University.
In a vote of thanks, the UBS Deputy Director, Prof. Chinedu Onyeizugbe highlighted the programmes available at the UNIZIK Business School which he described as dynamic and handled by experienced and well grounded scholars. Prof. Onyeizugbe disclosed that the UBS is currently training 1000 youths as part of efforts to marry the town and gown. The scholar specially thanked Chief Okafor, UNIZIK Vice-Chancellor and UBS Director for their support to the school.
Highpoints of the occasion was the ceremonial foundation stone laying performed by UNIZIK Vice-Chancellor and the benefactor, Chief Okafor as well as cutting of the ribbon on the site of the project. Present during the event were members of the University Management, Governing Council, Directors, Deans, staff members of the UBS and other principal officers in the institution.
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