AACCI names Ooni patron, as others bag doctoral degrees

Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, the Ooni of Ife, has been named the Patron of the Asian-African Chamber of Commerce and Industry (AACCI), African Region.

Leye Babalola, the AACCI Vice President who announced this at a press conference in Lagos, said Oba Ogunwusi would be decorated, while Chief Michael Okiro, the former Inspector General of Police, will be the special guest of honour during the event slated for April 27 at the NECA House, Ikeja, Lagos.

Babalola stated that the Ife monarch was being honoured for his immense contributions to Nigeria’s economic development in particular and his efforts towards entrepreneurial development in Africa.

He stressed the need to build a virile economy that would be privately driven by entrepreneurs due to rapid increase in business among African, Pacific and Asian countries which had jumped from $2.8 billion in 1990 to about $300 billion in 2018.

Babalola maintained that the huge business volume was expected to surpass $1.5 trillion by 2020, hence there was need for African leaders to embrace small and medium enterprises (SMEs) which, he stressed, constituted 75% of the Gross Development Product (GDP) which would impact an unemployment rate.

Tunde Osho, the representative of the University of Entrepreneurship and Technology(UET), State of Delaware, United States of America in Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, who also spoke at the press conference, said that eminent personalities who had contributed immensely to the development of the economy would be awarded honorary doctoral degrees.

He named the dignitaries such as Governors Umar Ganduje of Kano State, Sanni Bello of Niger State, Brigadier Paul Boroh, past Coordinator of Presidential Amnesty Programme, Dr. Mohammed Bawa Gummi, MD of Turk-Afrique Energy Ltd and Engineer Muazu Magaji, Executive Vice President of Platinum Vault Group.

The others are frontline accountant and entrepreneur, Prince Akin Taiwo; the MD of a leading estate management firm, Harriman & Co., High Chief Tosin Taiwo; and Prince Lateef Fagbemi, SAN.