In the 2025 Times Higher Education Impact Rankings, Aare Afe Babalola (SAN), Founder and Chancellor of Afe Babalola University, Ado Ekiti (ABUAD), along with the academic and non-academic staff, received praise from Professor Damilola Sunday Olawuyi, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) and global vice chair of the International Law Association.
Being ranked as the 84th greatest university in the world, third in Africa, and first in Nigeria for the fourth year in a row, from 2022 to 2025, was a significant milestone for ABUAD.
Speaking in Morocco on the fringes of the Arab-Africa Forum on Business and Human Rights, which took place in Marakech, Olawuyi, a leading professor of international law and the deputy vice chancellor (research, innovation, and strategic partnerships) at ABUAD, said just that.
Olawuyi made the following observation when talking about how higher education might support innovation and sustainable development in Africa: Universities can play a significant role in fostering an innovation economy that promotes regional investment and commerce while upholding human rights.
Africa needs universities with a global perspective that foster entrepreneurial innovation through research, courses, executive education, and enterprise development that offer workable answers to the continent’s problems, he claims.
Olawuyi praised Aare Afe Babalola as “a bold reformist, an icon, and a continental treasure that has shown us what is possible,” adding that regrettably, only a small number of universities on the continent share this mindset.
“Afe Babalola of Nigeria has demonstrated to us what is feasible in this area,” he said.
When Babalola made the independent decision to leave his successful legal practice, he returned to his hometown of Ado Ekiti to devote his time and attention to creating a cutting-edge, world-class institution that would be competitive on a global scale.
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According to current rankings, his university is the 84th greatest in the world. Every one of the 54 African nations needs at least one Afe Babalola.
It will transform the world if there are 54 Afe Babalolas on the continent. But the truth is that there is only one Afe Babalola, and he is pleased to be in Nigeria himself.
He stated that he is a national treasure deserving of all praise and recognition.
“With more support, ABUAD will indeed take education to higher and unimaginable heights and will in no time produce noble laurates that will unlock technological and economic prosperity for our nation and continent,” Olawuyi said, reinforcing the need for innovative institutions like ABUAD to be supported and collaborated with by African governments, investors, and the international community.
He urged Moroccan and other African colleges to take inspiration from ABUAD’s success story and advocated for cross-learning among African institutions.
