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Tag: summit

  • Summit varsity matriculates 42 freshers

    Summit varsity matriculates 42 freshers

    All roads led to the Summit University in Offa (SUNO), Kwara State, as the faith-based university held its maiden matriculation.

    Forty-two pioneer students took the matriculation oath at the ceremony held at the school play ground.

    The university, owned by the Ansar-Ud-Deen Society of Nigeria, was among  private universities newly approved newly approved by the Federal Government.

    The occasion was also the first official engagement of the Vice-Chancellor (VC), Prof Hussein Oloyede, who expressed appreciation to the school proprietor, Board of Trustees and Governing Council for considering him worthy of the position.

    Oloyede congratulated the students, urging them to be ambitious and work hard to leave the institution with good grades. He said the institution was set up with a vision to train graduates in knowledge, skills and moral uprightness, adding that the university certificates would be issued to students found worthy in learning and character.

    The VC enjoined the pioneer students to shun criminalities, including cultism and examination malpractices, noting that the management would maintain zero tolerance for misconduct.

    Pro-Chancellor, Dr Wale Babalakin, recalled that the setting up of the school was challenging, adding that members of the Governing Council worked tirelessly to ensure the school took off.

    Babalakin, who is Chairman of Bi-Courtney,  said: “I commend members of Governing Council for their support and the support they gave the proprietor when the university was seeking candidates to be admitted. I kept to my promise to offer rebate of 50 per cent of the school fees to the first 10 students to enroll, and also my pledge to donate an e-library to the school. Let me join the management to congratulate the parents and our pioneer students.”

    Ansar-Ud-Deen National President Alhaji Femi Okunnu, said: “Today’s occasion crowns the aspirations of the founding fathers of the Ansar-ud-Deen Society of Nigeria to provide quality education to all our children. The journey began in March 2002 like an imagination. We set up a higher education committee saddled with the task of establishing a befitting university for the Society.

    “On March 5, 2015, the society obtained a provisional licence to operate a private university. We acknowledge the effort of the Offa community and the Olofa of Offa, Oba Muftau Esuwoye II, who donated a hall of residence to the school.”

    Africa’s first professor of Geology, Jamiu Oyawoye donated N2 million to the school, while encouraging the students to strive for excellence. He promised to offer N 250,000 to the overall best student and scholarship up to doctoral level.

    National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) National President, Alhaji Najeem-deen Usman Yasin, donated a Nissan Urvan bus to the institution.

    The university took off with three colleges and 13 disciplines, including Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science, Mathematics, Physics, Arabic, Islamic Studies, English and Literary Studies, History and Diplomatic Studies, Accounting, Business Administration, Banking and Finance, Economics, and Political Science.

    The highpoint was the formal admission of the pioneer students into the school by the VC, and handing over of the instrument of Authority from the proprietor to the VC. The event was attended by the principal officers of the university, Deans of Colleges, Senate members and members of Ansar-ud-Deen Society of Nigeria.

  • Minister leads talk at summit

    As preparations for the 2017 edition of MARKETING EDGE National Marketing Stakeholders Summit gather momentum, Minister of Communication Adebayo Shittu has confirmed his participation as the Keynote Speaker and Special Guest of Honour at the event scheduled to hold on June 16.

    He said he is excited and willing to be a part of the yearly event especially given the theme of this year’s award, which he said is a fallout of industry’s appreciation of President Muhammadu Buhari’s economic recovery and restructuring plans aimed at making Nigeria a self dependent and self reliant country.

    The theme of the summit which holds at the Federal Palace Hotel, Ikoyi, Lagos is “Brand Marketing and Marketing Management in a Recovering but Restructured Nigerian Economy: Challenges and Implications for Marketing Services Providers”. The guest speaker at the summit is the former Managing Director of Guinness Cameroun, and Founder/CEO, Advantage Consult, Mr. Ekwunife Okoli, while the renowned marketing guru and Managing Partner of Market Space, Mr. George Thorpe, will chair the occasion.

    Confirming the minister of Communication’s participation at the event expected to attract over 400 industry players and gladiators, the publisher of the leading brands and advertising magazine said: “The Hon. Minister,  Adebayo Shittu, gave his consent early in the week as a way of encouraging and assuring industry operators of Federal Government’s genuine desire and intention to make everybody key into its newly released economic reform agenda while also promoting backward integration in critical industries as it is no longer business as usual.

    The publisher and the convener said the event, which is a two-in-one-initiative, is intended to promote the brand idea while further expanding the frontiers of marketing and advertising knowledge.

    He said the theme for this year’s summit was adopted as a result of the need to create conversation around the current economic realities in the country as a way of opening up new opportunities for industry players.

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Salami, others for productivity summit

    All roads will lead to Muson Centre, Lagos in mid May for the much coveted TAM Productivity summit.

    The event is to be chaired by a media executive and council member of Women in Business (WIMBIZ), Mrs. Olubunmi Aboderin-Talabi.

    The summit which is the brainchild of SB Telecoms and Devices,  a Lagos-based technology company with specialty in time attendance management and productivity solutions, will take place in mid May at Muson Centre, Lagos.

    Tagged: ‘Boosting Employee Performance Beyond Pecuniary Benefits,’ the summit will have Dr. Doyin Salami, Associate Professor at the Lagos Business School (LBS) as the keynote speaker among other panellists and discussants namely: Babatunde Fuad Durosinmi-Etti, Commissioner, Wealth Creation & Employment; Deremi Atanda Executive Director, SystemSpecs, Omome Osime-Oloyede ,  Managing Director, XL Express & Logistics .

    Justifying the need for the summit, Chief Executive Officer, SB Telecoms & Devices, Mr. Afolabi Abiodun said: “There have been lots of complaints and reservations over the productivity output of today’s employees. A large number of employers are critical of the laissez-faire attitude displayed by their staff which negatively affects business performance and the company’s bottom-line.”

  • Hope rises as Africa holds infrastructure investment summit

    Hope rises as Africa holds infrastructure investment summit

    There is fresh hope of more investment in infrastructure on the African continent as a global law firm, Hogan Lovells,  leads sponsors list of an investment summit to be hosted by the Africa Finance Corporation (AFC).

    The summit, scheduled to hold in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, on May 15 and 16, will feature a number of high-level participants from government and the private sector, including having the Presidents of Nigeria, Ghana and Uganda in attendance.

    The Head of Hogan Lovells’ Africa Practice, Andrew Skipper, will lead high-level discussions on catalysing investment and leveraging success stories in the African infrastructure space.

    The summit is already generating excitement among stakeholders in the industry, who are concerned about the state of infrastructure on the continent. While Africa may be the world’s fastest growing continent, access to basic infrastructure services remains a critical challenge across the continent, with studies showing that poor road, rail and port facilities add 30 to 40 per cent to the cost of goods traded among African countries. An often quoted World Bank report suggest that Africa needs to spend $93billion annually until 2020 to bridge its infrastructure gap.

    This explains why AFC Live has been created to provide a platform to develop solutions that will fast track African and international capital towards infrastructure. Although investments in energy and in transport can offer better commercial and social returns than most investments, stakeholders however believe that creating the right structure to make these projects commercially attractive requires skill as well as political will and a conducive regulatory environment.

    In this instance, the sponsors of the summit, Hogan Lovells, is believed to have the requisite knowledge and experience to help countries and clients navigate through. This is buoyed by the firm’s several decades spent working across the continent, covering almost 50 countries and a network of local law firms in all but two African countries. This has also helped the firm to develop an intimate knowledge of the continent’s business environments.

    “We are thrilled to be the lead legal sponsor for this event because we believe in and want to support business on the continent. Infrastructure plays an incredibly important part in any country’s growth story and in Africa, it is vital,” Skipper said.

    On the challenge of project funding, he explained that African-focused direct foreign investments (DFIs), Export Credit Agencies or foreign grant funds, cannot entirely fund the continent’s infrastructure needs.

    Skipper further explained that international investors and commercial lenders need to adjust their thinking on a range of issues in order to encourage an appropriate view on acceptable risk allocation and investor returns in these sometimes complex markets.

    He contends that by bringing financiers and investors together alongside project developers and fund managers, AFC Live aims to ensure that more capital, both African and international, can be deployed towards addressing the continent’s pressing infrastructure needs. “Hogan Lovells are proud to be a longstanding partner to investors, sponsors, developers and governments on this journey,” Skipper said.

  • Summit aims to boost coastal areas

    The maiden edition of Badagry Economic Summit designed to expose investment opportunities in Badagry will hold on March 23rd and 24th in Lagos. Organisd by the Badagry Convention and Visitors Agency (BCVA), the summit, which has as theme: Unleashing Investment Opportunities around Historic and Coastal Zones of Epe and Badagry is a bi-annual conference that will draw stakeholders from all walks of life.
    Director, Marketing and Administration of Badagry Convention and Visitors Agency, Dr Temidayo Hephzibah, said that the utmost aim of the agency was to bring economic growth to the people of Badagry and its environs. He said Badagry Economic Summit is a bi-annual platform established by Badagry Convention and Visitors Bureau to create economic opportunities surrounding the ancient city blessed with several natural economic endowments.
    “This summit is designed to bring together corporate organisations and individuals to share ideas about Badagry opportunities. Epe became part of the maiden edition of the summit because of its similarity in terms of history, location and resources.
    “The main objective of the summit is to provide direction to the reality of making Badagry an international market hub for investment and leisure activities. The summit will also bring together regional and international industry experts including investors to discuss investments opportunities around Badagry and other coastal neighbourhoods of Lagos state such as the Epe axis.
    “Deep sea port investment naturally attracts a huge number of business activities ranging from logistic park operations, bonded terminals, and so forth. This is the best time every maritime and logistics operator in West Africa should position themselves to be key players in what is to be Africa’s largest sea port in Badagry,” Dr Temidayo added.
    Bureau’s Chief Executive Mr Ashamu Sewanu Fadipe said that top tourism experts and investors are being mobilised for the summit to explore investment opportunities in the area.
    Fadipe said that the summit would showcase the abundant investment opportunities in Badagry so as to lure investors and tourists to the area.
    “There is no doubt that investment opportunities abound in Badagry and we have all it takes for investors to invest in.
    The community is blessed with rich historical and cultural heritage, crude oil, serene beaches, coconut plantation, seaport and massive land for development.
    “If all these potentials are properly utilised, it will boost the economy of Badagry and increase the Internal Generated Revenue (IGR) of Lagos State.
    “At a time like this when government calls for opinions on economic diversification with focus on tourism, federal government of Nigeria will be glad to see leadership direction that harnesses tourism economic potentials in Badagry as a model to replicate tourism investment in order parts of the country,” he said.
    Badagry Convention and Visitors Agency (BCV Agency) was formally established in August 2016 to market Badagry as a destination.

  • Ambode woos investors at Nairobi business summit

    Ambode woos investors at Nairobi business summit

    Lagos State Governor, Mr Akinwunmi Ambode yesterday said the state is willing, able and ready to partner with investors within and outside Africa, just as he said that adequate measures have been put in place to enhance the ease of doing business within the state.

    Ambode, who spoke at the second edition of German-African Business Summit in Nairobi, Kenya, said as Africa’s model mega city, Lagos is strategically positioned to play a leading role in propelling development on the continent, adding that as a result of the growing investors’ confidence, the state is fast becoming a preferred destination for investors in Africa.

    Giving statistics about state, the governor said apart from being the fifth largest economy and fastest growing city in Africa with a population of over 22 million people comprising overwhelming proportion of middle class income earners, Lagos is also the contributor of 30 per cent of Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and the leading contributor to the non-oil sector GDP.

    He said: “Lagos accounts for over 60 percent of the country’s industrial and commercial activities; over 70 per cent of national maritime cargo freight; over 80 per cent of international aviation traffic, and over 50 per cent of Nigeria’s energy consumption.”

  • UNIDO to hold summit

    The United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) has concluded arrangements to hold the ‘Global Manufacturing and Industrialisation Summit (GMIS) aimed at promoting a roadmap for industrial development to echo the evolution in international trade and global best practices.

    The summit, which holds in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE), March 27-30, is a joint initiative launched by UNIDO and the Ministry of Economy of the UAE.

    As the world’s first-ever cross-industry forum, the summit is designed to create universal consensus by unifying governments, businesses and civil society to take a transformational approach towards shaping the future of manufacturing.

    A statement on UNIDO’s website stated that manufacturers play a crucial role in the exponentially evolving world economy, accounting for almost 17 per cent of global Gross Domestic Product (GDP) over the past few years.

    “They (manufacturers) generate wealth for investors, pay taxes to governments and employ half a billion people worldwide. In the meantime, they are also facing challenges brought by rapid transformations in technology and global value chains that are driven by the digital revolution. These challenges can no longer be resolved in isolation, they require a global solution,” the statement said.

    It added that in this context, GMIS will offer a voice and a venue for leaders to transform manufacturing, encourage greater investment in capabilities, foster innovation and drive global skills development.

    “The summit will bring together over 1, 200 delegates, including visionary world leaders, industry CEOs, research experts and academics to provide long-term innovative solutions to the challenges faced by the manufacturing industry,” the statement added.

    It also said in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations, the event is part of a global initiative to promote and advance inclusive and sustainable industrial development, for which this year’s is only the beginning of the GMIS journey.

  • Youths seek end to HIV/AIDS at summit

    Worried about the burden of HIV/AIDS on the youth who are said to be the most productive of Nigeria’s population, some Nigerian youths converged on Transcorp Hilton Abuja, to brainstorm ways to end the epidemic.

    The youth, drawn from the 36 states of the federation under the auspices of the National Agency for the Control of AIDS (NACA), attended the conference tagged Youth Summit, to mark this year’s World AIDS Day.

    The summit challenged Nigerian youths to discover themselves and assume leadership roles, drawing on their natural talents, backed with skills and robust energy to provoke change in the social and economic spheres

    Various speakers, who were mostly youths from various spheres of life, expressed optimism that if the youth could look inwards, understand their influence and awesome power, they can cause a lot of change in the current socio-political and economic situation in the country. This will empower them and make them less vulnerable to factors that drive the pandemic.

    Speaking during the event, Dr. Victoria Isiramen, United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) specialist on HIV said the global body was there ‘’to chat the future.”

    She added that donors are now shifting focus from HIV and AIDS to other areas, yet there exist great opportunities, if youths could position themselves to explore any aspect of the sustainable development goals. She said though the sustainable goals did not make any specific provision for HIV and AIDS intervention, many of the targets have direct relevance to youths and could be utilised.

    For instance, of the 17 goals, the first aims at ending poverty in all its forms everywhere while the second goal focuses on ending hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture. The third ensures healthy lives and promotes people’s well-being at all ages while the fourth goal ensures inclusive and quality education for all and promotes life-long learning, among others.

    Citing what she called a “demographic dividend”, a term she defined as “a boost in economic growth that occurs when a country’s working age population is larger than the population that is dependent and younger,’’ she explained that this much is an asset that the country needs to leverage on to scale off from the limitations, but the youth are responsible to make it happen.

    She also cited very high unemployment rates in the country but maintained that “as active citizens’’ they can innovate and network to demand their rights and act as change agents through advocacy, mobilisation, education networking, using their vast numbers and advantages derivable from the new media and information technology.

    In his paper entitled “The Role of Young People in HIV Programming in Nigeria”, Mr. Isa Mohammed, advised the youth not to under-estimate their capacities, adding that there is no limit to what the youth could do.

    “We hold the power to build the future’, he insisted. He acknowledged the contributions of Nigerian youths in so many programmes to bring AIDS to an end. He said they include mobilisation of people to access treatment, advocacy for youth-friendly services and campaign against stigma and discrimination, among others.

    He also asserted that the world would only remember those who have solved a human problem. ‘’Get the job done, we are all in”

    In her paper entitled “Overview of HIV Response Among Young People in Nigeria”, Dr. Akudo  Ikpeazu, Director Programme Coordination, NACA, exposed the  vulnerability of youths to HIV and AIDS, citing factors that drive the pandemic to include multiple and concurrent sexual partnership, inter-generational sex and sexual coercion, among others.

    She enjoined the youth to take charge of themselves so as to be productive and responsible citizens.

    The summit featured various presentations, feedback session as well as capacity building. It enabled youths and adolescents to air their views on their experiences on HIV and AIDS and the way forward.

  • 150 firms for mining summit next year

    One hundred and fifty companies and operators will participate in the National Mining Summit holding first quarter next year as part of plans by the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development to drive investment.

    Minister of State for Mines and Steel Development  Abubakar Bawa Bwari said this at the weekend at a joint news conference by the ministry and international partners on the mining summit .

    The minister said the exhibition and summit was a joint-venture between the ministry and Afrocet Montgomery, IMAG and Deloitte Consulting. It will hold at the International Conference Centre, Abuja, between April 25 to 27, 2017.

    According to Bwari, the summit will deal with an approved Mining Road Map as an international platform for the Federal Government to introduce a regime of robust mining legislation, pro-growth policies and supporting regulatory framework.

    He said this would create a globally competitive platform for stakeholders in the nation’s mining and mineral processing sector.

    Bwari added that the summit will attract key local, regional and international mining stakeholders; government functionaries, diplomats, policy makers, investment funds, financial institutions, consultants, mining operators and many others.

    Over 150 companies will showcase their products/services in custom-built exhibition booths.

    The minister said about 3,000 visitors are expected from West Africa Mining and Construction sectors.

  • DGN TO HOLD CREATIVE ECONOMIC SUMMIT

    AS the current recession seems to be heightening demand for economic diversification, Nollywood’s apex practitioners’ body, Directors Guild of Nigeria, DGN, has designed a realistic economic revamp strategy that will make film business a proud Nigerian product with the desired Gross Domestic Product (GDP) earnings.

    A project of the Fred Amata-led administration, the summit which is billed to take place at the Hotel Presidential , Port Harcourt, Rivers State on November 24 and 25, 2016 is expected to attract corporate investors, relevant government agencies, captains of industry, Studio owners and other influencers in the creative sector of the economy.

    Themed “Driving National Growth through Nollywood”, the two-day event which is aimed at making Nollywood a national project was part of the campaign promises of Amata during the DGN election which took place in Asaba, Delta State in February, 2016.

    The November summit is not particularly the first by the DGN, as the platform has been used to drive different projects of the Guild. But by making it a national project, the guild believes this will earn the entire film sector a respectable place in the economy of Nigeria, which will in turn make government to see Nollywood as a viable alternative source of income generation and employer of labour worthy of being included in the country’s annual budget.

    Although the notion among Nigerians that Malaysia came to Nigeria some years ago to get seedlings for oil palm which has placed the former as number one oil palm producing country in the world has been debunked, DGN believes that such a notion as filmmaking and Nollywood into a national project could produce similar results in the immediate future.

    Incidentally, for Nollywood, the narrative is fast changing with Nigerian filmmakers now telling the country’s stories rather than leaving it to foreigners.

    With some Nigerian films now beating Hollywood movies to box office earnings, DGN feels it is just time to conquer whatever technical deficiencies that are left and evolve a more auditable structure for Nollywood to grow as a subsistence and export product.