Nigerian billionaire businessman Aliko Dangote
Photo: amehnews.com

In his avowed commitment to encouraging entrepreneurship in the country as a way out of the economic doldrums, Nigeria’s business magnate, Aliko Dangote, is donating another N1.2 billion ($3m) structure for running of a business school in Bayero University, Kano (BUK).

The building which will be handed over to the university management formally next month is a state of the art edifice and will effectively mark the commencement of the study of business in the institution and the first in the Northern part of Nigeria.

It would be recalled that Dangote is also building a similar business school in the University of Ibadan and would be commissioned anytime soon.   

The business schools being undertaken by the Aliko Dangote Foundation, according to the Mr. Dangote, who is president of Dangote Group, is part of the efforts to build entrepreneurship in the sub-consciousness of Nigerians through education at the highest level.

He explained that the situation Nigeria has found itself necessitates revisiting school curriculums to reflect the new consciousness of entrepreneurship and manufacturing and efforts made to encourage study of business especially at the second level in the university.

When visited, the building which has been completed and awaiting commissioning, is a modern business school within the premises of Bayero University, Kano. It comprises of auditoriums, lecture theatres, offices, classes, library, and complete electrical fittings and cooling system, among others.

Speaking on the gesture by Africa’s richest man, the BUK Dean of Faculty of Dangote Business School, Professor Murtala Sagagi said that there was no business school in Bayero University, Kano (BUK) until Dangote started the project.

“We have an ambition to have a business school and we could not go ahead with the project because there was no befitting structure to accommodate the kind of dream we had but with Dangote coming in about five years ago and that was when the University decided to say this is the time to have the business school,” he said.

 He noted that Kano is the second most vibrant commercial city in the country after Lagos, saying “we have industries, banks, different type of businesses, micro, small, medium and large enterprises.”

“We are having large scale investors from China, Spain and all over the world coming to Kano to make investment and this means the State needs an institution, a kind of faculty, school that can able to develop the capacity not only the management of those organisation but those people who are working in different units or department within the organisation.

“Looking at the public sector, we have limited capacity in budget, project management, which has led to things not moving well in the country. With our unique disadvantage here in Northern Nigeria, the South is far ahead in terms of capacity level, for example there are about 20 universities in Ogun State, while in Kano State we have only three Universities and all of them owned either by the state government or federal government. It is just of recent we are getting private investors coming in.”

Sagagi pointed out that all these show that there is a need for massive capacity building in Management, Finance, Marketing, E-Business, and particularly entrepreneurship and innovation in this part of the country and also for the entire country.

He noted further that “Bayero University has a unique reputation in the whole country and this explains why in the last National Institution Accreditation exercise, BUK became the best University in the Country, not because we have the best of everything but because of the quality of our curriculum, faculty and most importantly the quality of the students.” 

The dean added that “the Dangote Business School is a great development and we hope that this business school will not only be seen as a Kano business school or Northern business school because I can tell you about 40 per cent of our students are not from Kano and more than 22 per cent of our student are from Southern part of the country.” 

He urged other eminent Nigerians with wealth to emulate Dangote and contribute to the education advancement of the nation as a way of boosting the country’s economic development pointing out that “if Nigeria is blessed with two of Alhaji Dangote, Nigeria will witness unprecedented economic boost in terms of job creation, employment and poverty reduction.”

African Press Organization