Victor EzejaBongo Adi, Chairman of Newstide Publications Limited Board of Directors has been conferred with the rank of a Professor in Economics and Data Analytics at Pan Atlantic University, Lagos, Nigeria.
The promotion was confirmed on Tuesday by the governing council of the University.
Prof Adi, a seasoned Development Economist, holds a full-time faculty position in the Economics, Data Analytics and Strategic Business Intelligence Department of both Lagos Business School and Pan-Atlantic University, Nigeria.
He is a Corporate Strategist, Data Scientist, PPP & Project Finance expert with over two decades of experience in Development Economics research, consulting and strategy policy advisory; capital raising, business development and data analytics.
For more than a year, he has held the Chairmanship position of the Board of Newstide Publications, publishers of Prime Business Africa – Nigeria’s leading online media in financial reporting – where he has made significant contributions, especially in the area of effective corporate governance in a 21st century multimedia organisation.
Adi’s expertise has seen him lead and manage exciting and complex projects on subnational competitiveness indicator engineering and benchmarking. Having led several organizational re-engineering projects including skill-set diagnostic benchmarking, balance scorecard implementation, and manning analysis, his clients include both public sector organisations and a motley of blue chip companies and SMEs.
Adi who is also a Project Finance and PPP expert, pioneered PPP and Project Finance training at Lagos Business School, Nigeria.
As a development finance specialist, he applies his skills to help nurture startups, develop MSMEs and also guides in accessing venture capital, and various supports from donor agencies, CBN and the wider development finance ecosystem.
In a chat with Prime Business Africa, Prof. Adi remarked that like a sport man who successfully clinches the crown of glory at the end of a competition, he feels elated given the “rigorous and precarious” nature of the journey in the academia. “It gives one the feeling of a lifetime accomplishment,” he added.
Adi further stated that he sees the promotion as a validation of his past efforts, dedication to hard work and a call to higher level of responsibility of serving not only his organisation but entire society.
His words, “It is always a thing of immense joy to arrive at the summit of your career – especially in academia where the journey is very rigorous and precarious. It gives one the feeling of a lifetime accomplishment.
“Going forward, the promotion is actually a validation of one’s previous efforts and also, a call for more work. Promotion to professorship is an invitation to a higher level of work and responsibility not only to the organisation but to the society at large.
“Being someone with verified competence and mastery of an area, a professor is expected to further advance the good of the society using the expertise he has honed over the years. It is this call that I must now answer: to use my skills to help solve the complex problems of our system to improve the condition of life for our society,” Adi stated.
He holds a PhD in Regional Science and Development Economics and M.Sc in Economic Development and Policy Management under the Joint Japan/World Bank Graduate Scholarship of the University of Tsukuba, Japan.
He is a prolific scholar whose research has been presented in numerous international conferences, workshops and published in top ranked international journals.
He is also a recipient of several awards including: UNU Fellowships (2000); World Bank Scholarship (2000); Japanese Scholarship for International Students (2004, 2005, 2006); Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) fellowship (2006) among others international awards.
Aside his forte in Scholarship and professional practice, Adi is also a regular Economist and Business Analyst on Channels TV, CNBC Africa, TVC, Arise TV, Silverbird, and AIT. He maintains a column called ‘Bongonomics’ in Businessday newspaper.
Victor Ezeja is a passionate journalist with six years of experience writing on economy, politics and energy. He holds a Masters degree in Mass Communication.
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