Professor of Industrial Chemistry and the University’s Director of Academic Planning, Oluwafemi Ogunmodede, has secured 79 sophisticated research and science equipment items worth $298,104.71 (₦480.2 million) for the university from Seeding Labs.
ABUAD’s Director of Corporate Affairs, Tunde Olofintila, disclosed this in a Wednesday press release, adding that the university has taken delivery of the state-of-the-art equipment, which complements previous research grants won by other researchers at the institution.
Olofintila said, “With this latest addition secured by Prof. Ogunmodede, the quantum of state-of-the-art research and science equipment at ABUAD has reached a new height.
“Previous grants include those secured by Prof. Pius Okiki, Professor of Microbiology and the university’s Provost, College of Sciences, who obtained equipment worth $221,041.98 (₦356 million) in 2023, and Prof. Olusegun Adebayo AdeOluwa of the Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, who applied to Seeding Labs in January 2023.
“Following approval of AdeOluwa’s application, the university paid a counterpart fund of $27,800 and took delivery of 53 sophisticated research and science equipment items worth ₦427.4 million on 30 July 2024.
“In addition, Dr Juliet Olayinka of the Department of Pharmacology, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, won an Observer 5 Microscope with Fluorescence and Camera from the Africa Microscopy Initiative in November 2024. The microscope, valued at $80,000 (₦136 million), was delivered in April this year,” Olofintila added.
ABUAD Founder, Aare Afe Babalola, congratulated the researchers for their efforts to acquire the equipment, praising their commitment to making ABUAD an active player in the World Bank’s three statutory functions of a university: quality teaching, quality research and quality impact/engagement.
Babalola said, “The newly acquired equipment will greatly assist the university, which has successfully produced Virucidine (an immune system booster syrup), Natucadine (an anti-ageing herbal supplement), and AB-Mal (an anti-malaria capsule), in its research in Medicine, Pharmacy and the Sciences, among others.”
He emphasised that optimal deployment of the equipment would help conserve foreign exchange that would otherwise be spent on importing drugs.
The ABUAD founder added, “I congratulate the university for standing out in the performance of these three duties stipulated by the World Bank. Our undeniable performance has been acknowledged globally.
“In the latest Times Higher Education Impact Rankings, our 15-year-old university was ranked No. 1 in the world for SDG 7, No. 1 globally in Outreach with a score of 98 per cent, No. 1 worldwide in Stewardship with a score of 98.2 per cent, and No. 1 among all 264 federal, state and private universities in Nigeria for three consecutive years — 2022, 2023 and 2024.”
Prof. Okiki, who, alongside Ogunmodede, showed the ABUAD founder around the equipment at the Bogoro Drug Research Centre, praised Babalola for his “unwavering commitment to institutionalising quality and functional education and for raising a new generation of leaders since the institution began academic work on 4 January 2010.”
Okiki said the newly acquired equipment would enhance hands-on training and research for staff and students, particularly those in Medicine and Health Sciences, Medical Laboratory Sciences, Nursing, the Sciences, Engineering, the burgeoning 124-unit ABUAD Industrial Research Park, and the ultra-modern 400-bed ABUAD Multi-System Hospital.
He added that the equipment would eliminate the need for staff and students to travel abroad to analyse samples and prevent medical and scientific samples from being sent overseas for analysis.
