Posted by The Guardian on
FIRST Bank of Nigeria Plc has increased its professorial endowment at the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi (ABTU) to the tune of N15.4 million.
FIRST Bank of Nigeria Plc has increased its professorial endowment at the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi (ABTU) to the tune of N15.4 million.
According to a statement by Mr. Jide Ogundele, the bank's head of Image Management, this is in addition to a new Peugeot 406 car presented to the occupant of the bank's Professorial Chair in Chemical Engineering.
Speaking at the award ceremony, First Bank's Business Development Manager, Bauchi, Mr. Abdulkadir Suleiman, said the gesture serves to strengthen the university's professorial endowment, which has risen to N15.4 million from an initial value of N10 million at the launch in 2002.
The Vice Chancellor of the university, Professor Garba Aliyu Babaji, thanked the bank for the gesture with a pledge to judiciously utilise the fund in the best interest of the university.
Responding, the Chair occupant, Dr. Usma El-Nafaty, noted that First Bank's decision to select Chemical Engineering for the endowment was proper and timely. He hinged his position on the fact that the Chemical Engineering Programme at ATBU was among the youngest departments in the School of Engineering. "Like a developing child, this is the stage, more than any other time, at which it requires significant financial support to grow and mature," he said.
He disclosed that the fund would, among others, be deployed to establishing research laboratory for Natural Gas and Catalytic Bio-remediation of associated pollution. It would also be used to train at least two postgraduate students up to Masters and Ph.D. degrees levels, buy recent books in each of the fundamental areas of Chemical Engineering and at least, subscribe to online international reputable Chemical Engineering journals.