Diamond Bank’s group managing director and CEO, Dr. Alex Otti, has received the 2013 Zik Prize in the Professional Leadership category, at an award ceremony organized by the Public Policy Research and Analysis Centre (PPRAC) recently.
Speaking on the award, Dr. Otti, in a statement said, “The shoes of the late Dr. NnamdiAzikiwe cannot be filled, so we are only trying our best to follow in his footsteps. Like Chief EmekaAnyaoku noted, the current situation whereby we spend about 80% of our national revenue on recurrent expenditure leaving very little for capital investment is unsustainable. This is why we continue to face problems of youth restiveness, among others.”
“At Diamond Bank, we are trying in our own ways to reduce the burden of youth unemployment. We have instituted the Building Entrepreneurs Today (BET) project, where we try to help young people with great ideas but no money to execute them. We reach out to these people from all over the country and select fifty with the best ideas for training at the Enterprise Development Centre of the Pan Atlantic University. After the first round of training, the best fifteen go through a second phase of business training with top consultants. The final five participants are given free grants of three million naira each to pursue their ideas. So far, Diamond Bank has invested over one hundred billion naira into the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises sector.”
Executive Secretary of PPRAC, Prince EmekaObasi, described Dr.Otti as an intellectual banker and quintessential leader who, “after graduating with a first class degree and as the best graduating student in his set at the university, came into banking and has been making strides for others to follow.”
Other awardees include Senator LiyelImoke, Governor of Cross River State; Gov. IbrahimDankwambo, Governor of Gombe State; and Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, Governor of Edo State.
Others are: Dr. BamangaTukur, Chairman, Nigerian Railway Corporation; Aare AfeBabalola, Founder, AfeBabalola University Ado-Ekiti (ABUAD); Dr. ABC Orjiako, CEO, SEPCOL; Dr.Ernest Obiejesi, GMD of Nestoil Plc and Ms. Evelyn Oputu, former MD/CEO, Bank of Industry.
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This article was first published on 24th June 2014
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Diamond Bank’s group managing director and CEO, Dr. Alex Otti, has received the 2013 Zik Prize in the Professional Leadership category, at an award ceremony organized by the Public Policy Research and Analysis Centre (PPRAC) recently.
Speaking on the award, Dr. Otti, in a statement said, “The shoes of the late Dr. NnamdiAzikiwe cannot be filled, so we are only trying our best to follow in his footsteps. Like Chief EmekaAnyaoku noted, the current situation whereby we spend about 80% of our national revenue on recurrent expenditure leaving very little for capital investment is unsustainable. This is why we continue to face problems of youth restiveness, among others.”
“At Diamond Bank, we are trying in our own ways to reduce the burden of youth unemployment. We have instituted the Building Entrepreneurs Today (BET) project, where we try to help young people with great ideas but no money to execute them. We reach out to these people from all over the country and select fifty with the best ideas for training at the Enterprise Development Centre of the Pan Atlantic University. After the first round of training, the best fifteen go through a second phase of business training with top consultants. The final five participants are given free grants of three million naira each to pursue their ideas. So far, Diamond Bank has invested over one hundred billion naira into the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises sector.”
Executive Secretary of PPRAC, Prince EmekaObasi, described Dr.Otti as an intellectual banker and quintessential leader who, “after graduating with a first class degree and as the best graduating student in his set at the university, came into banking and has been making strides for others to follow.”
Other awardees include Senator LiyelImoke, Governor of Cross River State; Gov. IbrahimDankwambo, Governor of Gombe State; and Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, Governor of Edo State.
Others are: Dr. BamangaTukur, Chairman, Nigerian Railway Corporation; Aare AfeBabalola, Founder, AfeBabalola University Ado-Ekiti (ABUAD); Dr. ABC Orjiako, CEO, SEPCOL; Dr.Ernest Obiejesi, GMD of Nestoil Plc and Ms. Evelyn Oputu, former MD/CEO, Bank of Industry.
