The Ignatius Ajuru University of Education commenced its First International Management Conference, headlined by a pivotal keynote from Dr. Dakuku Peterside, the former Director-General of NIMASA. The two-day event focuses on a singular, urgent theme: “Business Re-engineering: A Catalyst for Economic Development.”
Dr. Peterside’s address bridges the gap between how individual companies operate and how a nation prospers, arguing that Nigeria’s path to “greatness” requires a radical rethink of productivity at every level.
The Town-Gown Connection: Universities as Leapfrog Catalysts
A central pillar of the conference is the role of academic institutions. Dr. Peterside highlighted that universities should not merely be centers of learning but “technological and institutional leapfrogging” labs.
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Collaboration: The event marks a new era of “town-gown” collaboration, where academic research meets real-world policy formulation.
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Process Re-engineering: The discussions interrogate how rethinking business processes—eliminating redundancies and embracing digital workflows—can fundamentally alter a nation’s economic trajectory.
The Link Between Firm and State
Drawing on his extensive experience in both the maritime sector and business advisory, Peterside explored the “Productivity Connection”:
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Firm-Level Efficiency: When a single company re-engineers its processes to be leaner and faster, it becomes more competitive.
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National-Level Impact: When this becomes a nationwide strategy, it lowers the cost of doing business, attracts foreign direct investment (FDI), and accelerates GDP growth.
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Global Lessons: The keynote compared success stories from both developed and developing economies that used structural re-engineering to escape the “middle-income trap.”
“Business process re-engineering must become a national productivity strategy,” noted Dr. James Vinazor, Head of Business Administration at the university.
Key Conference Themes (Feb 26-27, 2026)
| Focus Area | Objective |
| Productivity Strategy | Moving beyond “hard work” to “smart processes.” |
| Institutional Leapfrogging | Using technology to bypass traditional developmental stages. |
| Policy Formulation | Translating management theories into actionable government policy. |
| Stakeholder Synergy | Bringing together faculty, students, and the business community. |
