The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation on Saturday offered automatic scholarship to the over all best student, Mr. Al-Amin Bashir-Bugaje, who graduated from the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering with a CGPA of 4.93, to study in any part of the world up to his PhD level.
This was the highlight of the 40th convocation ceremony of the university which saw 8,260 students graduating, with 50 of them coming out with first class degree.
And the Vice chancellor of the University, Professor Ibrahim Garba, also disclosed that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has spent about N6 billion to establish a business school in the university.
Group managing Director of the NNPC, Dr Maikanti Kacalla-Baru, who earlier delivered convocation lecture said, he was impressed by the performance of 50 of the graduating students who graduated with first class degrees in different fields.
He said the corporation will sponsor the over all best student to study in any university in the world up to PhD level.
“NNPC will sponsor him fully to wherever he wants to study in this world up to PhD. Level,” he said, adding that the NNPC had been at the forefront of fostering education in Nigeria.
Earlier in his speech, the Vice Chancellor of the University, Professor Ibrahim Garba, disclosed that out of 8,260 that graduated, 3,600 were post graduate students with 250 budding PhD and over 2,300 masters degrees.
Speaking on the establishment of the business school by the central bank of Nigeria, the Vice Chancellor said the business cool will cover Accounting, Business Administration and Economics Departments.
He said that the ABU’s Faculty of Medicine had been transformed into ABU College of Health Sciences and headed by a provost with four faculties.
“The college has taken off with four faculties of Basic Clinical Sciences, Clinical Sciences, Basic Medical Sciences and Allied Health Sciences. Along with this development is the commencement of three new academic programmes beginning from 2017/2018 session. These are Bachelor of Dental Surgery, Bachelor of Medical Laboratory Sciences and B.Sc. Medical Radiography,” he said.
Last year the school introduced four additional courses in its Department of Mechanical Engineering.
“The university has continued to improve and expand the existing facilities for teaching and research within the limit of available resources” he said, pointing out that as part of its improvement, the university had introduced e-learning methodology in academic delivery to tackle growth in the number of students.
Garba said that the university was using Tertiary Education Trust Fund and Presidential Need Assessment Intervention Fund to execute the projects.
Earlier in his welcome address, the Chancellor of the University and Obi of Onitsha, Igwe Alfred Achebe, said: “Since my installation as the Chancellor of this university on Nov. 1, 2015, I have found this university to be vibrant and promising.
“It has enormous human and material resources and a number of specialised research institutes, particularly agro-based ones.
“These institutes include the Institute for Agricultural Research, National Animal Production Research Institute and National Agricultural Extension and Research Liaison Services.’’
He said that the institutes had over the years made significant contributions to the agricultural sector of the Nigeria’s economy.
