Sterling Bank Plc has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Africa EDUCare, a disruptive innovation educational and healthcare solutions company, to transform higher education in Nigeria with Unify; Sterling’s innovative education management solution.
The signed MoU is conceived to deploy Unify to transform
education and administrative management, and to enable Africa EDUCare realize
its dream of floating the Maranatha Institute of Science and Technology (MiST);
a NextGen STEAM university with an innovative curriculum focused on Sciences,
Technology, Engineering, Agribusiness, and Medicine curriculum.
Speaking at the signing ceremony in Lagos, Obinna Ukachukwu,
Divisional Head for Business Growth and Transaction Banking at Sterling Bank,
said education remains and continues to be one of the five critical sectors of
Sterling’s focus under our HEART strategy. The other sectors are Health,
Agriculture, Renewable Energy, and Transportation.
“We believe that continued investments in these sectors are
key to ensuring the nation’s survival, growth, and prosperity beyond this
generation,” Ukachukwu said.
Obinna continued by saying that Unify is conceived to
transform the administration of education at all levels in Nigeria. He said,
“At Sterling, we believe that Nigerian tertiary education needs to be
reengineered before it can be empowered to transform industry, and the
corporate world, with the kind of adequately skilled manpower required for the
desired impact.”
James Makinde, CEO and President of Africa EDUCare,
mentioned that the partnership presents great development prospects for
Nigeria, saying that “Africa EDUCare proposes to revolutionize education and
revitalize the national economy for global impact through tertiary and
vocational education that transfers skills that are immediately usable in the
marketplace.”
He added that “The strategy for Africa EDUCare is to take
learnings from developed and developing economies through the design of impact
instruction modules that mirror real-life employability needs, leveraged
through technology.”
Makinde, also the pioneer Vice-Chancellor of the prestigious
Babcock University, concluded by saying that a strategic alliance with an
institution of Sterling Bank’s stature and repute will, in the nearest future,
transform the education landscape and assist in transforming this vision into
reality.
Also present at the signing ceremony were Adatugo Oyebanji,
General Manager, Café One (UNIFY), Olufunso Olunaike, Chief Technical Officer,
Café One (UNIFY), Prof. Kamar T. Adeleke, President/CEO of Tristate Healthcare
System and Executive Vice President, Healthcare for Africa EDUCare.