The Senior Pastor of Kingsway International Christian Centre (KICC), Matthew Ashimolowo has urged graduates of Kings University, Odeomu, Osun State to be creative and embrace business ideas in order to make a difference in their respective societies and be financially bouyant.
Ashimolowo, the Chancellor of Kings University, gave this charge at the 5th and 6th Combined Convocation Ceremony of the faith-based university at the campus on Friday.
The school graduated a total of 103 graduands with 37 belonging to the 2022/2023 academic set (Royals) while 66 are of the 2023/2024 academic set (Elites).
Ten out of the graduands bagged First Class including a set of twins.
Addresing the graduates, Ashimolowo asked them to discover opportunities that abound in Nigeria to be prosperous, saying there is money in Nigeria waiting to be amazed.
The clergyman suggested that they should not leave Nigeria thinking that there is more money abroad, reiterating the need for the graduands to be creative and innovative new things in order to benefit from the immense opportunities in the country.
He said there is unemployment everywhere in the world, charging them to distinguish themselves by being creative, innovative and digitally equipped in order to be employable.
Ashimolowo noted that the whole of Africa is not up to the GDP of four firms in Europe including Microsoft, Amazon, Meta and Apple, indicating that Africans only copy and queue behind innovations, instead of coming up with their own creative ideas.
To the graduates, Ashimolowo said, “There is a serious unemployment everywhere in the world; even if you japa and become a japanese, you will still meet unemployment. It is your creativity companies want to hire you for. So, there is money in Nigeria and you can get this by making a difference in creativity, innovation, the digital world and business ideas.”
He asked them to be curious, flexible, sensitive, original and should not get too attached with social media.
“If anybody tell you there is no money in Nigeria, they are lying to you. We call money currency because it is a current, it is either flows to you or it flows away. Nigeria is at a crossroad with a record number of graduates without job. Endsars ends nothing; look into the horizon, it’s hard for anyone to promise you anything better than what you see for yourself,” he further encouraged the graduating students.
Delivering the Convocation lecture themed: “Navigating the Digital Era: Embracing Creativity and Unlocking the Boundaries of Technology,” the Chief Executive/Group Managing Director, SystemSpecs Ltd, Lagos, Mr John Tanimola Obaro asked the graduands to cultivate the culture of creativity and innovation, build on past innovations and make a difference in the world.
Obaro reminded the graduating students that they owe humanity a debt of innovation and that they should ensure they pay the debt in their lifetime.
Tasking them to challenges norms and think out of the box, the guest speaker admonished them to see niew challenges as learning opportunities, identify real life problems., seize the digital era to make a difference and leverage on artificial intelligence to earn a living.
In her remarks, Prof. Adenike Kuku, the Vice Chancellor of Kings University said all the courses in the university have full approval of the National University Commission (NUC), saying that the institution has made significant achievements since its establishment.
She urged the graduating students to use their expertise and knowledge to drive positive changes, push boundaries to create much better world that would be conducive for the world.
Meanwhile, the university conferred honorary awards of excellence on the guest lecturer, Obaro, Mr Paul Alaje, Senior Economist and Partner, SPM Professionals, Abuja and Ms Yemisi Adeyinka, Team Lead, Eaglecrest Legal Consult, Lagos.
