BURSAR

Mrs. Elizabeth I. Opara FCA

Mrs Elizabeth Idoye Opara (nee Edgal), a seasoned Chartered Accountant, assumed duties on 1 February 2008. She attended St Maria Goretti Secondary School in Benin City for her secondary education and the Auchi Polytechnic for her accounting Diplomas. She served in the National Youth Service Corps in 1981 with the Firm of Egunjobi Sulaimon and Company, (a firm of Chartered Accountants in Jos). She became a Member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants (ICAN) in 1986, having qualified in May 1985. She later obtained a Master of Business Administration from the University of Jos in 1992. Mrs Opara started her professional career in the University of Jos as an Accountant 11 in October 1981 and rose through the ranks to become the Deputy Bursar in 1998. While in the University of Jos, She worked in various units such as the Assets, Insurance and Stores Control Section, the Expenditure Control Section, the Final Accounts Division, Loans and Advances Management Services Divisions and the External Donor Funds and the Treasury Services Divisions, to name a few. Mrs Opara was the first female Chartered Accountant in the University of Jos and the first female in West Africa to win a one-year fellowship award to participate in the International Fellowship Foundations training in 2004/2005. In 2003, she developed computer applications for customised reports for her University and in 2005, led a team that developed the proposal, which won the University of Jos a second tranche of $2.5Million external funding from the Carnegie Corporation of New York Partnership project. She was appointed Project Director for the Jos/Carnegie Corporation of New York $4.9m Partnership Project. Mrs Opara has co-authored a number of publications and technical papers in learned journals and presented several papers at Seminars and Workshops. She assumed duties as pioneer Bursar on 1 February 2008.