Okereke-Onyiuke Returns to Familiar Turf

Quietly returning to her very well known philanthropic gestures, the former capital market chieftain has made a donation of 100 banking books to the National Universities Commission (NUC) for distribution to Nigerian universities, in an effort to advance the learning of finance and banking related issues that have linkages with the trends in the country’s economy.

To the former Director-General of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) who grew the capitalization of the exchange to N14 trillion prior to her retirement in 2010, is known to have been a popular donor of books to various academic institutions, believes that Nigerians should cultivate the habit of consistent reading of books so as to keep the brain and mind healthy. She noted that when humans reduce the rate of feeding the brain with books and new knowledge, the brain easily dies and some very severe medical conditions set in.

At the presentation of Inside Nigerian Banks, a classic banking book written by Nik Ogbulie, a Lagos based financial journalist, the renowned capital market professor and former president of African Stock Exchanges Association(ASEA) urged Nigerians to develop the habit of buying books to distribute to the academia and other friends .The 100 books which were received by Alhaji Abdullahi Hanza, Director, Lagos office of the NUC, will be shared to the major universities that are offering Banking and finance because the book is largely equipped to encourage further research on Nigerian banks.

Looking as radiant and smart as ever, she noted that she has been involved in series of cross-border consultancy services to institutions that wanted her to replicate the skills she brought into the Nigerian market and this has made her virtually out of the country. Looking healthier and refreshed, she remains highly optimistic that Nigeria will come out of the ravaging recession if all hands are on deck to drive home the essence of unity in diversity. She says that she now has time and peace of mind to do more research work and deep meditations that could enrich investment ideas in an economy like ours.

The pretty capital market mogul feels alright that some works of literature have started documenting the roles prominent Nigerians played in reshaping the economy and urges Nigerians to remain highly professional in the delivery of their duties so that posterity will reckon with them. In one of the books, the professor was praised for her role as the major reason why the banking sector consolidation was a huge success, using the support of the innovative NSE under her. She noted that God has been on her side as there has not been any major health issue with her since the last six years she left the exchange.