* Says he belongs to uncommon era of entrepreneurs who turned personal ambition into public worth
Deji Elumoye in Abuja
Vice-President Kashim Shettima has felicitated famend banker, entrepreneur and philanthropist, Dr. Jim Ovia, on his seventy fifth birthday, describing him as one of many quiet architects of contemporary Nigerian enterprise.
He significantly stated Ovia’s biggest achievement just isn’t the wealth he created, however the establishments, alternatives and folks he has raised alongside the best way.
The vice-president, in a message issued on Thursday, mirrored on his longstanding friendship with the founding father of Zenith Bank Plc, saying there comes some extent in a profitable life when achievement is measured much less by accumulation and extra by what stays helpful to others.
“At 75, Jim has reached that enviable season of life the place the proof of success is in all places, but its most essential dimensions can’t be captured on a stability sheet. A financial institution may be valued. Buildings may be priced.
“Investments can be counted. But how does one put a figure on the confidence given to a young entrepreneur, the education made possible for a child, or an institution built strongly enough to continue without its founder?” he requested.
Shettima noticed that Ovia’s outstanding journey provides an essential lesson concerning the nature of tolerating success, noting that whereas many individuals construct companies, only some achieve constructing establishments able to surviving their very own instant presence.
His phrases: “Jim understood fairly early that enterprise is finally an act of religion sooner or later. When he based Zenith Bank, he was not merely opening one other financial institution; he was making a wager on Nigerian expertise, know-how and risk. The establishment that emerged from that conviction has develop into a part of the structure of our economic system.
“But what I admire even more is that his imagination did not end with banking. He carried the same belief in human possibility into education and philanthropy. Through scholarships, investments in learning and the institutions he has established, he has increasingly devoted his accomplishments to enlarging the possibilities available to another generation.”
The vice-president stated his private relationship with Ovia had additionally afforded him the privilege of encountering the person behind the general public accomplishments.
Shettima described the celebrant as a good friend whose heat, self-discipline and fidelity have endured by means of the altering seasons of private and non-private life.
“Friendship teaches us issues that public repute can’t. Over the years, I’ve come to know Jim past the spectacular statistics connected to his title. I’ve seen a person of immense accomplishment who stays curious, composed and deeply invested within the progress of others. There is power in that fidelity.
“Life, eventually, asks each of us a simple question: after all the striving, who is better because we were here? At 75, Jim Ovia can look around our country and find part of the answer in thousands of lives, careers and institutions that have been enlarged by his vision.”
The vice-president prayed for continued well being, knowledge and fulfilment for the celebrant, saying the nation nonetheless has a lot to realize from the expertise and perspective of completed Nigerians corresponding to Ovia.
“On behalf of my family, I celebrate my dear friend, Dr. Jim Ovia, at 75. May the years ahead bring him the quiet satisfaction that comes from seeing seeds planted over a lifetime become shade for generations one may never meet. I wish him good health, abiding peace and many more years of purposeful service to Nigeria and humanity. Happy birthday, Jim,” Shettima additional careworn.
