The Nation Newspaper

Tag: standard

  • ‘Quality post-gradauate studies improve falling standard’

    ‘Quality post-gradauate studies improve falling standard’

    Vice-Chancellor, Ekiti State University (EKSU), Ado-Ekiti, Prof Patrick Aina, has said the country can overcome the fallen standards of tertiary education if the university system could improve the quality of postgraduate studies.

    Aina, who spoke in Ado-Ekiti at the opening of the 45th meeting of the Committee of Deans of Postgraduate Schools (CDPGS) in Nigerian Universities; said “substandard post-graduate studies would only produce half-baked students.”

    He canvassed improved funding of postgraduate studies to enable the production of required manpower to man the increasing number of universities.

    According to him, this move will support the attainment of the international target of 1:20 teacher-student ratio in the nation’s tertiary institutions.

    Aina said: “With 146 universities (as at the last count) and using the present figures of enrolment, in order to meet the required teacher student ratio of 1:20, we will need to increase the number of academic staff in Nigerian universities from the current level of 26,000 to 50,000 with the minimum qualification of doctorate degree.

    “Postgraduate education is, therefore, to respond positively to the training of postgraduate students for the much-needed high level manpower development of the country,” he said.

    The VC identified factors, including gross underfunding, inadequate and ailing infrastructural facilities, industrial strife and political instability as few of the factors working against attaining improved education standards.

    In his address, the Chairman, CDPGS, Prof. Atiku Yahaya, appealed to the National Universities Commission (NUC) to institute measures to arrest the problems identified in what he called “the postgraduate benchmarks exercise.”

    He advised the NUC to accommodate technocrats in postgraduate education and advocated increased funding for research and teaching in the nation’s universities, saying: “Only this could assure the production of needed quality manpower. T he Dean, School of Postgraduate Studies of EKSU, Prof. Eddy Olanipekun, commended the university management for supporting the meeting which attracted participants from 51 universities accredited by NUC to run postgraduate courses.

     

  • Standard Bank’s costs weigh on profit

    Standard Bank will press ahead with expensive plans to open another 30 branches in sub-Saharan Africa this year, aiming to cash in on booming loan and deposit growth even as the costs of such investment hit its bottom line.

    Reuters said Africa’s biggest bank by assets, is 20 per cent owned by Industrial and Commercial Bank of China. It blamed a below-forecast nine per cent increase in first-half profit on costs of investment.

    “It really has been growing rapidly and we’ve continued to invest, which is part of the reason for the cost growth that you’ve seen,” Chief Executive Jacko Maree said, referring to its 16 operations across the continent.

    “But if you look at the profitability in Africa you saw the profits growing by some 80 per cent, just looking at the on-the-ground banks on the continent, which is a very big jump.”

    He pledged to do all he could to control spending after a 17 per cent rise in the six months to the end of June but said costs would continue to climb as the bank seeks to cash in on an estimated 30-40 per cent rise in loans and deposits across the continent.

  • Standard Alliance girl wins Miss Insurance pageant

    A staff member of Standard Alliance General Insurance, Miss Sadiq Sefiya, has won this year’s Miss Insurance pageant organised by the Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria (CIIN).

    The pageant, which held in Lagos, was keenly contested by 12 ladies from different underwriting firms.

    Miss Cole Oluwayemisi of Anchor Insurance emerged the First Runner-Up and Ogunkoya Tolulope of AIICO Insurance was the Second Runner-Up.

    Miss Sefiya, who was excited, said she never gave the contest a thought when it was announced, adding that she made up her mind to participate at the last minutes.

    She said her boss and family members encouraged her to participate in the contest.

    The insurance Queen went home with the Star Prize is a Kia Picanto Car sponsored by Unity Kapital assurance Plc, while the First Runner-up and Second runner-up took prizes sponsored by Standard Alliance Life and African Alliance Insurance Plc.

    The President CIIN, Dr. Wole Adetimehin, said the pageant is organised to harness the potential of young ladies in the industry and by extension deepen insurance awareness.

    He urged the Queen to live up to the expectations, adding that the standard set by former queens has to be sustained.

  • Artisans urged to improve standard

    Tailors and fashion designers have been enjoined to improve on the standard of their profession.

    According to the Director, Lagos State Ministry of Commerce and Industry (LSMCI), Mr Hakeem Adeniji, there is a need to move from the old order to a new one.

    He spoke at the inauguration of Local Government Executives and Board of Trustees of the Lagos State Tailors and Fashion Designers Association of Nigeria (LASTFADAN). His paper was entitled Duties and responsibilities of being a trustee.

    Adeniji said the trusteeship of the association, which is life membership, should be reduced to a four-year term to allow for change. “I think four years is enough for any trustee to contribute his or her quota to the development of the association. I see either a patron or matron as a position that can be for lifetime but I do not agree with that of a trustee,” he added.

    He said the Ministry of Commerce and Industry often advises association to make their president and other notable management members as trustees so that they can be more efficient. This, he said, was because they would be able keep sensitive document such as acquisition of movable and immovable property of the association, among others.

    Describing a trustee, Mr Yekini Kolawole, a barrister at law, said he is someone who has control on the money or property that was put in a trust for somebody. He is also a member of a group of people that controls financial affairs of a charity or other organisations, he added.

    Kolawole, who presented the paper, said the Board of Trustees, which is also an advisory council on policies, should ensure high standard of morality and integrity in every activity of the association as custodian of information. “The board shall be vested with the assets of the association and serve as its keeper,” he said.

    On role of the board, he said: “It mediates and serves as arbitrator in dispute resolution between the executive and members.”

     

  • Standard Alliance boss Emerhor gets awards

    Standard Alliance boss Emerhor gets awards

    The Group Chief Executive Officer of Standard Alliance Group, Olorogun O’tega Emerhor, has been conferred with three awards in Lagos and Abuja for his contributions to the growth of the nation’s economy.

    He received The Entrepreneur of 2012 at the AES Excellence Cub’s Third Annual CEOs Dinner/Awards Nite in Lagos.

    Speaking at the presentation of the awards, a former Minister of Industries and Chairman of the Club, Dr. Nike Akande, noted Emerhor’s strides in business and his contributions to the growth of the nation’s economy.

    Others who also got awards at the event included Alhaji Yusuf Maitama-Sule; Mike Onolememen, the Minister of Works, Dr. Christopher Kolade; Rabiu Kwankwaso, Kano State Governor and Mrs Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire, the Deputy Governor of Lagos State.

    Olorogun Emerhor has also been recognised by the University of Nigeria Alumni Association and the Nigerian Chamber of Shipping with a Lifetime Achievement award and an award as a major contributor to the growth of the Chamber at their separate events in Abuja and Lagos.

  • POST-WESTERHOF LAMENTATION: Fears over standard of Kwara Football Academy

    There are fears among stakeholders, coaches and aspiring footballers alike that the standard of hitherto prestigious Kwara Football Academy has fallen.

    Problem of the institution which has strong backing of Kwara State government, according to those interviewed, started with the departure of former Super Eagles coach and pioneer Director of the academy Clemence Westerhof.

    Four years after leaving KFA, Westerhof still has much to celebrate about the initiative introduced by Senator Abubakar Bukola Saraki, as the current Technical Director, Paul Ashworth is still struggling to justify the huge investment on him to make the Academy produce quality players for both local and international use.

    Ashworth replaces Westerhof as the Technical Director of the institution, and is in charge of football and everything that concerns the players, but the Englishman has not added any outstanding and quality players to the one discovered by the Dutch coach after almost three years in charge.

    Ashworhth is on a huge pay of 9,000 dollars and N50,000 monthly allowance, with four return tickets per annum to Europe.

    Asides the fact that he has not got any concrete offer for any of the players, various screening exercises organized by the school was badly handled, culminating in the admission of over-aged and poor quality players.

    Finding revealed that no player in the Academy is fit to play outside the country, except those groomed by Westerhof, and some of them are gaining exposure with Kwara United and Abubakar Bukola Saraki FC, both of Ilorin.