Vice President Kashim Shettima has commissioned the N15 billion Centre of Excellence Complex at Bayero University Kano (BUK), housing a world standard postgraduate school built by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
The two separate five-storey buildings in the complex, with one consisting of 190 well-furnished single hotel rooms, and the other housing two modern theatres, classrooms and offices of the Banking and Finance Faculty, is estimated to have cost N15 billion.
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While commissioning the facility yesterday in Kano, the special adviser to the vice president on economic affairs, Dr Tope Fasua, who represented the VP, described the facility as rightly located considering Kano as a major commercial centre in the country.
He said, “Central Bank of Nigeria’s Centre of Excellence is nationally conceived to house a world-class postgraduate school focused on business and finance. 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.
“The buildings look well-appointed and so long as finance remains relevant and critical to the development of nations, so long will this project be relevant. I also understand the eagerness of the VC and management of the university to start utilising these facilities and to prevent dilapidation due to unuse.
“Some of Africa’s largest markets are in the city of Kano. Dawanau Market is reputed to turn over an average of N5 billion on a daily basis in commodity trade and serves West Africa as a whole. The African Continental Free Trade Agreement has already kicked off and Nigeria needs to fill her space therein.
“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.
“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 and that Nigeria can begin to consolidate her 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 stated.