The vice president, Senator Kashim Shetima, commissioned the Centre of Excellence building complex built by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) at Bayero University Kano (BUK) on Monday. He said that through the research work that will take place in this centre, the horizon of commerce, banking, finance, and trade will be expanded
This was just as the vice president said that gratitude should be extended to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for this initiative.
The Special Adviser to the President on Economic Affairs in the Office of the Vice President, Dr Tope Fasua, who spoke on behalf of Senator Shetima while commissioning the building at the BUK, said that the buildings look well-appointed and so long as finance remains relevant and critical to the development of nations, so long will these projects be relevant
” I am hopeful that through the research work that will take place in this centre, the horizon of commerce, banking, finance, and trade will be expanded.’
What is more fitting than one of these being sited in the great city of Kano, which has traditionally been known to be a centre of business, trade, commerce, and finance over centuries?
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Some of Nigeria’s remaining thriving industries are still resident in Kano. Kano is not only about commodity trade, even though this city houses perhaps the highest density of warehouses in Nigeria.
It is therefore hoped that the activation of this magnificent Centre of Excellence will add considerable value to the already established status of Kano State, Northwest Nigeria, and Nigeria as a whole.
Nigeria can begin to consolidate its position as a hub for value addition, industrialization, and even the harnessing of the new vista of artificial intelligence, machine learning, nanotechnology, and other arcane innovations that are changing our lives positively the world over.
He, however, disclosed that ” Nigeria’s economy—just as every other economy on earth—had passed through dire straits in the last 17 years since the onset of the global financial crisis that saw the demise of large financial institutions like Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns, and hundreds of others between 2008 and 2012.”
This era also set Nigeria’s banking sector back considerably, even though we managed to avert the worst consequences.
He hinted that “we could, however, not avert two recessions—one in the year 2016 precipitated by a drastic fall in the price of crude oil and another global one caused by unprecedented business and social shutdowns in the best-forgotten COVID-19 era.
The Central Bank of Nigeria may take a lot of the blame for the aftermath of these volatilities today. But with hindsight, Nigeria pulled through, and we all look forward to better days ahead.
Legacies like this Centre of Excellence will remain as evidence of the turbulent eras that we speak about, and we urge the Central Bank of Nigeria to continue to perform its corporate social responsibility within legal limits and express its innovativeness because society needs them.
Earlier, the vice-chancellor of BUK, Professor Abbas Sagir Adamu, said that “these two facilities will go a long way towards assisting the university, Kano, and Nigeria because the two buildings are meant for finance, economics, and other social sciences.
According to him, “It is going to boost research; it is going to boost the economy of Nigeria. We are going to put them to use so that they contribute to national development.
“We are not privy to the cost implications of the facility, because when we requested the facility, we were just asked to show the site, and that was done. We have not seen how much it costs, but we have taken the value.
“After the two edifices have been handed over to us, we have taken the value of the two facilities, and the two will now cost more than N15 billion,” he said.