The sixth annual birthday lecture series in honour of a former Vice Chancellor of the University of Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, Prof. Akpan Hogan Ekpo, will be delivered on Tuesday by the President of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN), Prof. Pius Olarenwaju.
At the event, scheduled to hold from 11 am at the university, Olarenwaju, a Professor of Banking Law at Babcock University, Ilishan, Ogun State, will be speaking on the theme, “The Economic Crises In Nigeria: The Way Forward”.
According to the invitation by the Governing Board of the Prof Akpan H. Ekpo Centre for Public Policy, University of Uyo, the institution’s Vice Chancellor, Prof. Nyaudoh Ndaeyo will be the Chief Host.
Sworn in as CIBN’s President and Chairman of Council, in May 2024, Olanrewaju, a thorough bred professional and seasoned academic, belongs to many professional bodies.
He is a fellow of CIBN, that of the Institute of Capital Market Registrars, the Institute of Management and Administrative Technology and the Enterprise Risk Management Professionals. He co-authored several books and articles in learned journals.
His career had transversed the economy for the past 30 years — from banking to legal consultancy, management and academic. An expert in Banking and Commercial Law, Olanrewaju is currently the Provost/Dean of Law of the School of Law and Security Studies, Babcock University, Ilisan.
Formally conferred with Emeritus Professorship by the University of Uyo on 9 November 2024, Akpan Ekpo, an acclaimed professor of Economics and Public Policy, became the first person to be appointed Emeritus Professor by the institution.
Currently, chairman of the Foundation for Economic Research and Training (FERT), Lagos, Ekpo, who will be 71 on Thursday, was also Director General of the West African Institute for Financial and Economic Management, Lagos between May 2009 and December 2018. He is the pioneer Vice Chancellor of the 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 (Cum laude 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 the MA and PhD degrees in Economics from the University of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania.
In his Valedictory Lecture delivered at the University of Uyo in June 2024, Ekpo, whose works are published in several publications, books and journals, argued that, ‘a country can be experiencing high growth rates yet 80-85% 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’.
