Intro from Chairperson of NBBF Education Committee
My name is Dr Sola Adesola. I am a Senior Lecturer, Visiting Professor and Entrepreneur with a special interest in higher education transformation and leadership, entrepreneurship and management education, and international strategy. My experience in higher education industry spans over 15 years. I hereby formally disclose my business interests prior to acting my role as the NBBF Education Chairperson. I am directly involved in ‘for profit’ and ‘non-for profit’ higher education and leadership programmes for students, academics and business leaders both in the UK and Nigeria, through our organisations: Advantage Global Positioning Limited (AGP); AGP Academy (eLearning), and Sola Adesola Foundation (SAF). My academic research interests in entrepreneurship economy and education, university-industry cooperation, knowledge economy and energy policy, closely inform my business interests.
I am deeply honoured to be selected by the NBBF Executive Board as Chairperson on the Education Sub-committee and hope that I will be able to do the position justice.
Education is clearly at the heart of how we are going to ensure everyone can be successful no matter where they start. I do not believe that anybody’s starting point in life should define where they finish. I did not accept that for myself and I do not think we should accept it for anyone else. Education is at the heart of how we tackle that issue of improving social mobility to impact socially, economically and environmentally in line with the UN Sustainable Development Goals. We know we are miles away from achieving SDG, but we can make our contributions. To achieve this goal, access to education and quality of education are in dire need of transformation across primary, secondary and tertiary levels in Nigeria.
Most of us in the Diaspora are where we are today because of education, we are privileged to have experienced quality education. This is not the case in many of our schools and higher institutions in Nigeria. I like the adage that goes: to whom much is given, much is expected. In line with this thinking, the Education subcommittee have decided to take the lead of contributing to Nigeria’s educational development by being more agile, enterprising and innovative, and driving the agenda for our benefit and for the next generations.
I thank you for your time and looking forward to work together with the sub-committee and other sub-committees in this great task of making education better in Nigeria.
Dr (Mrs) Sola Adesola
Senior Lecturer, Business School, Oxford Brookes University
Director/Founder, Advantage Global Positioning (AGP) / SAFI
info@nigerianbritishbusinessforum.com
07967 505 223
AIMS & OBJECTIVES
As a sector under NBBF, our aim and objectives are set out to:
1. Establish strong links with the Federal Ministry of Education and State Ministries on policy development, needs analysis and implementation
2. Develop close relationships with private sectors, business leaders and public sector in the UK and Nigeria to stand up for education and step up their commitments to education
3. Encourage Nigerians in Diaspora in essential business sectors to contribute to address the enormous challenge of education and employability of youth skill gaps both in the UK and Nigeria
4. Liaise with British companies and investors keen to doing business in education in Nigeria
5. Develop working relationships with relevant educational institutions and bodies in the UK and Nigeria
6. Hold annual conference, seminars, workshops, road shows and press conferences and education visits.
This list is by no means exhaustive but we recognise the need to be strategic, focused and set ourselves achievable milestones. We welcome input from our members both in the UK and Nigeria.