By Precious Nwafor, Emmanuel Chukwu, Rachael Okechi and Esther Ugwu

The Director, ESUT Entrepreneurship Development Centre, EDC, Professor Uche Ugwuanyi spoke exclusively with ESUT Monitor Newspaper on the importance of the Centre, plans to relaunch ESUT Bread and other issues in the Centre. The Interview session was anchored by Precious Nwafor, Entertainment Editor. Excerpts

Brief profile

I am Professor Uche Ugwuanyi, from Accountancy Department, Enugu State University of Science and Technology. I am the current director ESUT entrepreneurship development Centre  

Of what importance is Entrepreneurship Development to ESUT?

It is of high importance, for the fact that you’re a student of this school, the kind of skills we will teach you both the soft and the technical, will go a long way to help you in your future endeavours. Entrepreneurship study is central in helping students to actualise their skills and be self-sustaining. 

A graduate of this university just won seven hundred thousand naira in entrepreneurship skills while serving in Edo State. She passed through the school and the centre. 

Does the centre fund students with entrepreneurship skills?

At present, we don’t fund student with entrepreneurship skills, but if we see anything that is convincing in such student, we can approach the management, plead and see whether they can support the student. We can also approach the state government to see how they can support with funding such students with that entrepreneurship skills that can help the external people

We used to see ESUT bread in the market, what happened?

It is still there, as you were coming you saw a lot of our Faculty coordinators, they came to present the bills, each of them presented their bills for the practicum that will take off next week. The people in charge of food and confectioneries, made mention of bread, meat pie, cake, ice cream, small chops. In fact, before the end of March, I will supply this interview with pictorial evidences of what they produced, each of them. It has been there since, maybe is because of the fact that we didn’t have enough fund to run it on a daily basis.

Are there any breakthrough in the centre with regards to innovation?

There are so many breakthroughs, we have a lot of ESUT graduates doing well in their various entrepreneurial endeavours. The case of Obiero Miracle is a recent one. We have a lot of them out there and we plan to produce more.   

What are the challenges facing the centre?

There are a lot of challenges, as we speak now we don’t have an office for entrepreneurship Centre, but the current Vice-Chancellor has promised to complete the Entrepreneurship Development Centre building in the school. The EDC Centre is a very gigantic building opposite the School of Postgraduate Studies.

Is there any particular date for the commencement of the practicum?

Definitely, one of the things we have done is articulation of different budgets from different coordinators. I’m going to present the bill to the Vice-Chancellor. By the special grace of God, if he approves it graciously, we will start the implementation next week.

Are the students going to pay for the practical?

No. You’ve already paid for your practical, the only thing you would do for us is when the product is out in the market, encourage the students to buy them. I’m happy you made mention of ESUT bread, the buns, the meat pie and so many others, they will be sold at a subsidized price

How is your work as a director of entrepreneurship development centre?

Very tasking, as you can see we’ve been up and doing to make sure that you students are at the end of the day will go home with entrepreneurship skills, both the soft and the technical skills that will enable you to stand on your own. Like this issue of Practicum we are starting next week, students will learn a lot, depending on the areas you want to venture into

The practicum will be decentralized, department-by-department. We have so many coordinators for each department.