Acclaimed Professor of Economics and Public Policy, Akpan Hogan Ekpo has been appointed the first Emeritus Professor by the University of Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.
A letter of notification signed by the University Registrar, Mrs. Blossom Okorie stated that the conferment is based on Ekpo’s “track record of service to the university and humanity in general”.
“It is hoped that this honour would not only serve as recognition to your personality and modest efforts at human development, but also as a platform for further contributions to the advancement of our University and the nation”, the letter further stated.
The formal conferment of the award on Ekpo, who is also a former Vice Chancellor at the University of Uyo, is slated for Saturday, 9 November 2024.
Currently chairman of the Foundation for Economic Research and Training, Lagos, Ekpo, 70, was also Director General of West African Institute for Financial and Economic Management, Lagos between May 2009 and December 2018. He is also pioneer Vice Chancellor of Akwa Ibom University of Technology and a former director at the Central Bank of Nigeria.
After his secondary education at the United Christian Secondary School, Apapa, Lagos in 1969, Ekpo received a Federal Government scholarship to study in the United States of America. He graduated from Howard University, Washington in 1976 with a Bachelor’s degree (with honours) in Economics and obtained a Masters in Economics from the same university.
He was on the Dean’s List of the university throughout his undergraduate studies and on full scholarship based on his academic performance. In 1975 as the best and honours’ student, he won the American Economic Association Fellowship to study briefly at Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois. In 1980 and 1983, he bagged MA and PhD in Economics from the University of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania.
In his Valedictory Lecture, “Nigeria: The Economics of Potentials and the Potentials in Economics’ delivered at the University of Uyo last June, Ekpo, whose works are published in several publications, books and journals, argued: “A country can be experiencing high growth rates yet 80 – 85 per cent of her citizens cannot provide or have access to the basic necessities of life. Hence, development goes beyond high growth rates to include structural changes, freedom as well as closing the inequality gap”.
