UNIZIK: Esimone boosting staff prestige with laundry, vacuum cleaning, other

By Chukwudi Ndubeze

The need to get staff relaxed, look neat and smart has informed the establishment of Souvenir shop, ultramodern laundry shop and a vacuum cleaning centre in Nnamdi Azikiwe university, Awka, www.odogwublog.com reports.

The Director of Business Ventures and Consultancy Services, Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka, Dr. Uche Ngenegbo disclosed this to www.odogwublog.com in an interview in his office.

Dr Ngenegbo attributed the foresight behind the establishment of the service units to the visionary sight of the Vice-Chancellor, Prof Charles Okechukwu Esimone FAS.

He said the vacuum cleaning centre would avail car owners in the campus (both staff and students) to ward off distractions caused in the process of washing cars at washing centers outside the school.

According to Dr Ngenegbo, “the recent establishment of a vacuum cleaning car wash facility within the school will not only usher convenience and security for staff and students of the university, but will avail them chance to perform their duties while their cars are cleaned and with assured security of the contents of the vehicles.

www.odogwublog.com reports further that the establishment of an ultramodern laundry followed the need for convenience of having clothing and fabrics washed in the school environment one is working.

According to Dr Ngenegbo, “it was the thought of Prof Esimone to make sense in the minds of the people that their clothes can be cleaned and ironed so that there would be smartness among members of the staff.”

Recall that the Vice Chancellor, Prof Charles Esimone when commissioning the university laundry, among others said the establishment would address needs of people who look lousy and down-dressed probably because of convenience and lack of adequate time to take their clothes to cleaners.

Dr Ngenegbo hinted that the laundry in the school would be bestowed with duties of washing academic gowns instead of taking them to private laundry owners outside the school, thereby saving costs from such exercise. Again, he said the laundry possesses machines and modern tools where clothes can be washed and ironed immediately such that clothes can be ready for collection after 1 hour of delivery.

“We are looking at having students that are clean, look smart and presentable. UNIZIK must have something visitors would talk about and all these are geared towards realization of project 200. Something must inform the mind that Unizik has migrated from analogue to digital.”

www.odogwublog.com informs also that, UNIZIK souvenir shop domiciled at the University library building was established with aim of branding the school effectively.

According to Dr Ngenegbo, “We believed that staff members of this school should be identified uniformly. That uniform will include t-shirts that would be worn, apart from pin-ups and ID cards that is our traditional means of identifying staff as some days should be reserved for certain attire,” he said.

One of the vision of every meaningful leader is to build structures that will stand the test of time. To achieve this, the Vice-Chancellor, through the school’s Business ventures and Consultancy Services reawakened the school’s block industry that was gasping for breath.

The hitherto malfunctioning Block Industry was handed over to an investor to bring in new zeal and mindset to move the firm forward. Since the tactical substitution, the block producing site has been a revelation, as it has continued to churn out quality blocks for the campus and the public on a daily basis.

“The University Vice- Chancellor is very creative, articulate and likes the best and the ideas of having Business Ventures and Consultancy Services on ground and which is under the Office of the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Administration), Prof Joseph Ikechebelu has succeeded both at improving the university internally generated revenue and bringing the university nearer to the project 200.

“The Vice-Chancellor came on board, thinking what to do and the first thing that came to his mind was what to do to make the University among the first 200 Universities in the World where total improvement and digitalizing of processes away from manuals or analogue would be involved. Luckily, he has good hands and articulate minds assisting him. Our activities are coordinated and supervised by the Deputy Vice-Chancellor Administration, Prof Joseph Ikechebelu. That can tell you how prepared the VC was with this Service arm of the University”.