United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc has resuscitated the UBA Professorial Chair of Finance at the University of Lagos with an endowment sum of the N52.9 million.
A cheque to this effect was presented to Professor Rahaman Bello, Vice Chancellor of the University of Lagos and members of the institution’s governing council at the weekend in Lagos by Mr. Phillips Oduoza, group managing director of UBA.
Oduoza, who led other executive management members to the school, said UBA is committed to the promotion of a globally competitive educational system in the country.
According to him, the bank has seen that there is a huge gap in the funding of educational system in the country and has decided to support in the provision of qualitative education as it strongly believes that a well trained and educated manpower is important to the growth and development of the nation.
He assured that the bank will continue to promote research and innovation in the Nigerian educational system, to boost man-power development and called on other banks, companies, institutions and individuals to emulate the UBA gesture.
“As first line beneficiaries of quality manpower, to support the pursuit of research and education in all Nigerian universities, private sector endowments will result in the creation of centers of excellence in different Nigerian universities, improving the quality of graduates, decision making and leadership in the society. Government alone cannot make this happen,” Oduoza said.
In his remarks, Bello praised UBA for resuscitating the chair despite the economic meltdown in the country, noting that the bank had in 1972 established the foremost chair in the university, the UBA Chair of Finance with an endowment.
According to him, it is worthy to note that the first financial institution to show its presence on campus and to support academic excellence in the university was UBA as it started awarding scholarships to students in the faculty of business administration as far back as 1969/1970 academic session.
