Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc, Chief Oliver Chukwudum Alawuba, has described the Naira redesign as the best thing that could happen to Nigerian economy at this time.
He assured Nigerians that the deposit monetary banks were working assiduously with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to ease and erase the current hardship faced by Nigerians in accessing the new naira notes.
Moments after being conferred with an honorary doctorate degree at the 8th convocation ceremony of the Imo State University, Owerri, he said that the new policy would stabilise the Naira and make it stronger in the long run.
He said: “The redesign of the naira is a positive policy that will support the economy in the long run. It’s true that we are passing though transition period and I believe that the CBN is working with Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) to make sure that the aspiration and purpose of the redesign come into fruition for the good of the country.”
On the allegations that DMBs were frustrating the intentions of the naira redesign, Alawuba urged Nigerians to focus rather on the positive sides of the policy.
He urged private sector to work in harmony with public sector to ensure that the purpose of the naira redesign was achieved.
Speaking on the occasion, the Vice Chancellor, Prof U.U. Chukwumaeze, said that what the institution needed badly were hostels to accommodate the growing population of students to save them from the sharp axes of shylock landlords.
Among those conferred with honorary degrees were former deputy governor of Anambra State, Mrs Virgy Etiaba, an entrepreneur, Chief Chika Emenike, and Executive Secretary of Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board, Simi Kesiye Wabote.
Also, the state Governor Hope Uzodimma and the visitor to the university explained that he was passionate about the repositioning of the university as a leading citadel of learning in the country and as an arena for generating and harvesting of intellectual ideas and capacities that would help in the positive transformation of Imo State and the country in general.
“As we know, knowledge is power. Ideas create knowledge. And both ideas and knowledge jointly rule the world. This being so, we must put in everything at our behest to ensure that our own centre for ideas generation and knowledge creation, which is Imo State University, is among the best in the world.”
The combined convocation is the first in the university in the last 10 years.
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