Tunji Olowolafe Foundation partners with OAU to expand digital research

The Tunji Olowolafe Foundation has entered a partnership with Obafemi Awolowo University in Ile-Ife to broaden postgraduate students access to digital research resources. The agreement was announced at OAU s 65th anniversary celebration where founder Tunji Olowolafe urged universities to open research to more people and to test long-held beliefs with scientific rigour.

Olowolafe framed postgraduate study as the nation s intellectual engine room and called for earlier, wider and more flexible entry to research. He asked OAU s management to make its staff schools benchmarks for Africa, placing science, technology and artificial intelligence at the core of curricula. The foundation will install a solar power system for the postgraduate college, provide a virtual learning and oral-defence facility, and modernise the college boardroom.

The partnership also includes funding pilot studies on a case-by-case basis and sponsoring training in grant writing and donor compliance through OAU s Central Office of Research and Advancement. TOF will support staff digital proficiency via its Project Digi-Teach, which is already training academic staff at Ekiti State University. Olowolafe highlighted the need for research to move beyond journals, urging universities to reward patents, commercial products and industrial problem-solving.

In his speech, Olowolafe cited the foundation s Gbemisola Olowolafe Memorial Community Secondary School, opened in September 2025 with 100 students and now over 170, which runs an ICT centre teaching artificial intelligence, coding, graphic design and Mandarin via live instruction from Beijing through a Starlink connection. He also referenced successful alumni such as Flutterwave and Moniepoint, encouraging the global alumni community to increase financial, institutional and mentorship support for research tenfold.