Aba to Join Nigerian Cities with Thriving Business Schools

Emmanuel Ugwu-Nwogo

Plans have been concluded for Aba, the commercial hub of Abia State, to have a business school just like other major cities in Nigeria, where such schools have already taken root.

The Rector of Abia State Polytechnic, Aba, Dr. Hagler Okorie, made this known yesterday at a pre-convocation press conference in Aba, saying the Enyimba City was long overdue to have a business school.

Presently, Lagos and Enugu are the major cities in Nigeria that have business schools, the Lagos Business School (LBS) and the ESUT Business School respectively.

The Abiapoly rector said plans have been concluded to establish the Aba Business School to further enhance the status of Enyimba City as a commercial/industrial hub in the Southeast.

Okorie, who is an associate professor of law, said consultative meetings have been held with the Aba business community and other stakeholders, adding that there is a consensus of opinion for Aba to have a business school.

He said the Abiapoly would soon be

converted to a university as the bill to that effect has reached the final stage in the process of being passed into law by the state House of Assembly before subsequent assent by the governor.

Okorie stated that Abiapoly has good facilities and high quality staff to effectively carry out its mandate of training middle level manpower for the country, adding that over 85 percent of staff members are PhD holders.

He said the new administration in Abiapoly headed by him was determined to add value to the institution and chart a new trajectory in terms of policies, programme implementation and relationships.

According to him, “Our duty now as a new administration is to push this narrative that we have what takes to run a digital polytechnic in this 21st century.”

The rector acknowledged that Abiapoly has a huge burden of arrears of salaries and convocation as the institution has been graduating students without holding convocation for the past 12 years.

However, he assured the workers of Abiapoly that the problem of salary arrears would eventually be sorted out, saying: “I have a handle around the salary issue and we’ll go chasing alternative sources of revenue.”