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In his opening remarks at the inauguration ceremony, the
Group Managing Director/CEO of Zenith Bank Plc and Chairman of the Body of
Banks’ CEOs in Nigeria, Mr. Ebenezer Onyeagwu, lauded the Founder and Chairman
of the bank, Jim Ovia, for being physically present at the commissioning of the
building to honour the memory of his late friend, Prof. Ibidapo-Obe, who served
on the board of Zenith Bank as a Non-Executive Director, and for his passion
for youth education and digital learning.
He noted the remarkable and continued commitment of Ovia to
education and youth development in Nigeria, especially through the setting up
of the James Hope College, a co-educational institution which offers a
combination of British and Nigerian curricula, and the James Hope University,
which is billed to commence academic activities next year.He also extolled his
philanthropy through the setting up of the Jim Ovia Foundation and Mankind
United in Total Support for Education Initiative, which has awarded
scholarships and produced over 1500 graduates from among indigent people who
would not have had the benefit of having a university education.
Onyeagwu also recalled how the bank’s partnership with the
University of Lagos began in 2001 with the donation of the first ICT centre,
when the Founder and Chairman was the Group Managing Director/ CEO of the bank.
According to him, “Today, Zenith Bank has built not less than 15 ICT centres in
various tertiary institutions and cities all over the country. And I just want
to say that no single institution or individual has been able to accomplish
what we have done in that respect.
And this is a demonstration of the passion our Founder and
Chairman has, not just for education, but also for digital learning and
computer literacy. This is in addition to several other support to the
university, including the institution of Academic Excellence Awards in 2001,
where the best graduating students from selected departments – Banking &
Finance, Business Administration, Economics and Accounting, receive awards with
financial rewards (currently NGN500,000) and employment opportunity, and the
donation of 3,500 tablets to enable indigent students of the university to
learn online effectively in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic.”
Onyeagwu noted that the building was a strong statement of
Zenith Bank’s sustainability initiatives as a signatory to several global
sustainability frameworks including the United Nations Principles for
Responsible Banking, as it incorporates many of the elements that make a
facility environmentally friendly and sustainable.
Speaking at the commissioning of the iconic building,
Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Udom Emmanuel noted the huge contributions of
Zenith Bank and, in particular, Ovia, a man he described as a father to the
development of Nigeria.
In his words,” when you see things being done consistently
in the right way, there is always a man pointing in that direction. A lot of
people ask me how come you are doing so much in public service; I say I come
from a background where my mentor told me that you don’t report efforts, you
don’t give excuses, but you report results.
So no matter the situation, even in the midst of an economic
recession, in the midst of Covid-19, you should not stop development and
performance. As far as you are from the Zenith family, you are expected to have
that creativity and ideas that can make you produce results.“
In Zenith, we say only the paranoid survive. So I really
want to appreciate what I am seeing here today.”
Whilst thanking the alumni association and the school
authority for their collaborative efforts towards achieving capacity
development, which he described as the bane of Nigerian society, he expressed
delight and honour to commission a building named after the revered Late Prof.
Oyewusi Ibidapo-Obe, who touched and impacted so many people while he was
alive.
In his address, the National President of Unilag Alumni
Association, Dr. John Momoh, thanked the Founder and Chairman of Zenith Bank as
well as the management of the bank for the magnificent building and Mrs. Sola
Ibidapo-Obe for accepting the association’s request to name the building after
her husband as a lasting legacy in his honour. He encouraged everyone to take
good care of and maintain the building to serve the university community for
years to come.In her remarks, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Lagos,
Prof. Folasade Ogunsola, acknowledged the invaluable contributions of Zenith Bank
to the development of the school, promising to work with the Alumni association
to ensure that the facility serves not only the Alumni but also the entire
students populace.
She thanked the Founder and Chairman of Zenith Bank, Ovia,
for donating 3,500 tablets to the university, which ensured that students who
could not afford laptops for e-learning during the covid-19 pandemic were not
left behind. In her remarks, Mrs. Sola Ibidapo-Obe, thanked the Founder and
Chairman of Zenith Bank for immortalising her late husband with such a great
edifice named after him. Recalling how close he was to her late husband, Mrs
Ibidapo-Obe said: “You are my husband’s friend. Dr. Jim Ovia has demonstrated
the love that does not die in his friendship with my beloved husband. When he
fell ill, Dr. Jim Ovia was there from day one till the last moment. I could
feel the way he felt. From then, I knew that he was a genuine friend. He tried
his best to ensure my husband survived, but he did not.” The iconic building,
which sits on a total site area of 950m2, was constructed by a team of
world-class builders who had the mandate of delivering the best quality
possible.
The iconic structure is a smart building that incorporates
many of the elements that make a facility environmentally friendly and
sustainable, including a grid-tie solar system that sustains power load on
solar and not on a generator or national grid, an inverter-driven VRF air
conditioning system and motion sensor lighting to enhance energy efficiency,
perforated aluminium composite panels for natural lighting and ventilation,
free Wi-Fi system to provide internet access for students, fire management
systems, including fire hydrant, smoke detector, and fire alarm system, and a
LED screen installed on the building for the dissemination of information.The
iconic building would house the Unilag Branch of Zenith Bank Plc and the
operations of Unilag Alumni. Of the total 1,665m2 of floor area designated for
office use in the four-storey building, 585m2 will be used by Unilag Alumni.