…hands over to Prof. Agbagwa
By Benedicta Omeni
Former Centre Leader of the Africa Centre of Excellence in Oilfield Chemicals Research (ACE-CEFOR), Professor Ogbonna Joel, has been appointed Commissioner for Petroleum and Energy by His Excellency, the Executive Governor of Abia State, Dr Alex Otti, in recognition of the successes recorded under the ACE Impact Project and his many other achievements.
Before his appointment, Professor Joel was the pioneer Centre Leader of ACE-CEFOR since 2013 when it competed for and won the World Bank grant for the establishment of an Africa Centre of Excellence (ACE) at the University of Port Harcourt. Under the leadership of Professor Joel, the Centre was assessed as one of the best-performing centres during the first phase of the ACE Project, known as ACE 1. And when the call was made for ACE Impact, it was Professor Joel who led the team to apply for a continuation of the Project. Following a rigorous selection process, ACE-CEFOR was one of seven ACE 1 centres whose projects were extended under the new phase of the Project.
During Professor Joel’s tenure, the Centre recorded several remarkable achievements in line with its mission to train industry-ready graduates who would contribute to sustaining and rejuvenating the oil industry in Nigeria.
ACE-CEFOR advertised and admitted 61 students as its first set of postgraduate students to study for PhD in June 2014. Leveraging the modular system of teaching adopted by the UNIPORT Institute of Petroleum Studies, lectures commenced immediately in ACE-CEFOR, and to date, the Centre has graduated 155 PhD candidates who are all either gainfully employed or succeeding in their private ventures.
The Centre has made a significant impact on the University with the procurement of equipment for the Central Instrument Laboratory and the Petroleum Engineering Laboratory, the launch of e-accounting and e-procurement software which are currently being integrated for the use of the university community, and the development of an online plagiarism portal to assist ACE-CEFOR graduate students with their research work.
ACE-CEFOR also upgraded the university’s ranking software, provided a fully functional and yearly subscribed e-library, and constructed and furnished two fully functional laboratories for the Centre. It trained and re-trained staff and students of the Centre with different short course certification programmes, both locally and internationally.
Before his appointment in UNIPORT, Professor Joel worked with Haliburton Nigeria Limited where he was the Country Laboratory Manager.
Professor Joel is replaced as Centre Leader of ACE-CEFOR by Professor Ikechukwu O. Agbagwa. Before he was appointed the Centre Leader, Professor Agbagwa was the Deputy Centre Leader of ACE-CEFOR in which capacity he worked closely together with Professor Joel in the development of the Centre and the University.
Before he was appointed the Centre Leader by the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Agbagwa was the Deputy Centre Leader, of ACE-CEFOR. He has also served on different committees and in different capacities at the university. He was the Director of the Quality Assurance, Quality Control, (QAQC) unit of the University where he served till very recently. He has served on the University Strategic Plan Committee and is currently the Head of the Department of Plant Science and Biotechnology.
Appointed to serve with the new Centre Leader is Dr Victor Aimikhe as the Deputy Centre Leader, and Engineer Daniel Okon as the Safeguards and Social Security Officer.
