Conference Keynote Speakers and Panelists

MURTALA S. SAGAGI

PROFESSOR OF BUSINESS & ENTREPRENUERSHIP

Dr Murtala Sabo Sagagi was born in Kano, Nigeria and has grown to appreciate local dynamics and challenges leading to his choice of career and specialisation in entreprenuership and employability. Currently, Sagagi is the Dean, Dangote Business School, Bayero University, Kano and the Head of the Association of Entreprenuership Educators. He holds a academic and professional portfolio in various fields, including entrepreneurship, public-private partnership and private sector development. Over the years, he has keyed into the regional, national and global aspiration to promote entrepreneurship and employability, especially in developing countries. He championed the development of entreprenuership curriculums/texts, in collaboraton with the National Universities Commission (NUC), which are currently used in teaching entreprenuership across Nigerian universtities and he also helped in training many academics and private sector actors in many parts of Africa, Asia and Europe.

Sagagi’s previous experience highlights his ability to effectivelly communicate with public and private sectors, academic institutions, development partners and the greater population of those his work serves. Such engagements has led to the setting up of two employment generating institutes in Kano State, two entrepreneurship research centres in Nigeria and United Kingdom and also helped set up Kano and Bauchi states Investment Promotion Agencies.

Sagagi has won many international awards, including Oxonia Award, Universty of Oxford and Fulbright Fellowship, USA. He also provided prefessional services to the British Councli, the World Bank, DFID, African Developmnt Bank, Nathan Associates, UK, Palladium, Adams Smith International and United States Embassy, Nigeria, etc. His active participation with International Entrepreneurship Forum (IEF) and the partnerships he forged with University of Florida, University of Oxford, University of Essex, UK; University of Wolverhampton, UK, Saint Mary’s University, Phillipines and University of Utara, Malaysia, have generated research works, publications and capacity development projects.

Today, the experiences he generated are helping in charting a new course of development for northern Nigeria, in terms of growth and employment generation, under the umbrella of Arewa Research and Development Project (ARDP) and his involvement with MAFITA project - a skills development intervention, funded by DFID; Kano Economic and Investment Summit Group, and other development platforms. On the whole, his academic partnerships and publications within and outside the country have helped in narrowing knowledge-gap, especially, in the field of development economics, entreprenuership and global management and are being harvested by public sector, development partners and private sector participants to advance businesses and create massive jobs, thereby reducing social inequalities and poverty related challenges.