The Vice Chancellor, Nnamdi Azikiwe University (UNIZIK), Awka, Anambra State, Prof. Charles Esimone, has restated the institution’s commitment to making its business school a business education destination.
He hoped the school would take centre stage in Nigeria as the best business school with global relevance.
Esimone spoke yesterday at the institution during the groundbreaking ceremony of the UNIZIK Business School’s (UBS’) new building, which will house library and other aspects of business education.
He hailed the management for the giant strides recorded, and praised Chief Ikenna Okafor for donating N1million as take-off grant for the project, saying it should be completed before the expiration of his tenure.
The Director, UBS, Prof. Emma Okoye, who put the total cost of the edifice at N695’005’631.23, described it as an architectural masterpiece.
He said it would transform the campus’ landscape upon completion.
Okoye listed reasons for building the facility to include, space for conducive learning, offices for principal officers and facilitators as well as increased population of students, following introduction of new courses.
“The courses we introduced, which interestingly were based on demand by our students, have made it imperative to have a more befitting structure housing the UBS.
“Similarly, UBS needed to come up at par with similar institutions following global benchmarking for business education, as provided by international quality assurance and rating organisations to which UBS subscribes to its membership.
“UBS belongs to three global quality assurance bodies, namely Johannesburg-based Association of African Business Schools (AABS), Brussels-based Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) and London- based Business Graduates Association (BGA).
“These have put us on the pedestal in the quest to be in line with global best practices of business education.
“It is important to mention that apart from such programmes as MBA (Project Management and Engineering Management), MPA, DBA and DPA, we also have courses in MSc and PhD in different areas of academic endeavour,” he said.
The benefactor and member of the UBS Board of Directors (BoD), Chief Okafor, said neglect of business education by teachers and students informed choice of his investment in the field.
He regretted emphasis on medicine and surgery, engineering and other fields without corresponding business ideas, describing such notion as building a house on faulty foundation.
