The outgoing President of the Association of African Universities​ (AAU) Governing Board, Professor Antonio Orlando Quilambo (Rector of Eduardo Mondlane University, Mozambique), has announced the appointment of Professor Olusola Bandele Oyewole as the new Secretary General for the Association of African Universities effective 1st October 2021.

Prof Oyewole emerged winner following a highly competitive recruitment process and will take over the running of the 54-year-old Association.

He will replace Professor Etienne Ehouan Ehile, an Ivorian higher education leader, who has led the association for the past nine years.

Oyewole, a Nigerian professor of Food Science and Technology, specifically Food Microbiology and Biotechnology, is not new to the association for he has been a staff and board member as well as president of the association.

He is the former Vice Chancellor of the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Nigeria and has also worked as a Senior Expert in Higher Education for the African Union Commission in Ethiopia. Oyewole’s work experiences at the national, regional and continental levels have endowed him with a wealth of knowledge in coordinating multinational research and development programs, and therefore comes to the AAU fully equipped for the job ahead of him.

In his acceptance remarks on Monday during the virtual extra-ordinary general conference of the association, Oyewole commended the out-going Secretary General for his sterling work that saw the group increasing its visibility, decentralizing its functions through regional offices, diversifying the capacity building initiatives, identifying new partners, nurturing the relationship with the government of Ghana and continuing the advocacy to various stakeholders to support higher education in Africa.

He revealed that he would focus on identifying and implementing strategies for sustaining the association during and post COVID19 era and strategic collaborations and dialogues with development partners and other stakeholders as key for the successful future of the association.

“My vision is to amplify the relevance of the association as the Voice of Higher Education in Africa.”