Olowolafe Unveils Devt Blueprint for Ekiti
Founder of the Tunji Olowolafe Foundation and Chancellor of Ekiti State University (EKSU), Dr. Tunji Olowolafe, has unveiled an ambitious development blueprint for Ekiti State, calling for a deliberate transition from its reputation as a centre of learning to an economy driven by skills, technology, industrial production, and wealth creation.
Olowolafe, who delivered the lead paper at the Ekiti at 30 Future Summit held at the Obafemi Awolowo Civic and Convention Centre in Ado-Ekiti, said the state must now convert its formidable intellectual capital into measurable economic prosperity.
Speaking on the theme: ‘The Path to Ekiti’s Greatness: Opportunities, Choices, and Imperatives for the Next 30 Years’, Olowolafe identified reliable power, practical vocational skills and direct access to industrial supply chains and global markets as three critical requirements for the state’s economic transformation.
He proposed an immediate technical audit of Ekiti’s 177 political wards with a view to establishing renewable-energy microgrids capable of powering schools, health centres, workshops, and small businesses.
According to him, solar microgrids of between 300 and 500 kilowatts could serve many of the wards, describing such projects as bankable and within the state’s capacity to execute with support from the Rural Electrification Agency (REA).
Olowolafe also called for a significant expansion of vocational and technical education, arguing that the emerging global economy would increasingly reward practical competence in areas such as solar installation, welding, fabrication, machinery repair, food processing and other high-value trades.
While acknowledging the six government technical colleges already established by the state, he said they were inadequate to meet the demand from young people across Ekiti State’s 16 local government areas.
He advocated the modernisation of their curricula and the recruitment of master vocational instructors from countries with strong technical education systems, including Switzerland, Germany, Canada and South Africa.
Olowolafe further urged major industries to participate directly in curriculum design, training and recruitment from technical colleges, saying the status of vocational education would rise once young people could clearly see pathways from the workshop to well-paying jobs.
He said Ekiti State already possessed the fundamentals required to prosper in a rapidly changing world, citing its education culture, tertiary institutions, professional excellence and disciplined work ethic.
But he warned that advances in artificial intelligence, robotics, biotechnology, automation and new energy systems were changing the global economy at unprecedented speed and that states and societies unable to adapt risked being left behind.
Olowolafe praised the continuity that had characterised some major development initiatives in Ekiti State, citing the Ekiti Knowledge Zone and the Ekiti Agro-Allied International Cargo Airport.
He noted that the airport represents an example of successive administrations building on one another’s efforts, from its conception by former Governor Segun Oni, through land acquisition and site clearing under former Governor Ayodele Fayose, construction under former Governor Kayode Fayemi, and completion under Governor Biodun Oyebanji.
Turning to agriculture, the businessman and medical doctor challenged the state to move aggressively from production of raw commodities to value addition.
Using cocoa as an example, Olowolafe questioned why, despite Ekiti’s pool of universities, engineers, scientists and artisans, farmers were still drying cocoa beans in primitive conditions rather than using affordable locally produced solar-powered dryers.
He said Ekiti State produced about 4,500 tons of cocoa in 2025 and proposed a clear objective that cocoa grown in the state should increasingly be processed into chocolate and other finished products at source.
“The central question,” he said, was how Ekiti State could turn knowledge and innovation into progress capable of lifting communities out of poverty.
The same principle, he added, should apply to solid minerals, with Ekiti State developing the scientific and technical capacity to identify, process and derive greater economic value from its mineral resources rather than exporting them in raw form.
Olowolafe also announced three major commitments by the Tunji Olowolafe Foundation towards supporting the state’s development agenda.
Under the first initiative, the foundation, working with the Ekiti State Government, would install and upgrade modern Information and Communication Technology centres in the state’s six government technical colleges, modelled after the GOMTECH ICT Centre in Are-Ekiti, with solar power and high-speed Starlink internet.
The foundation would also recruit international vocational training experts on its payroll to support teachers, train students and assist in reforming the technical college curriculum, with success measured by the number of graduates who secure professional certification, employment or establish businesses.
Thirdly, Olowolafe pledged that the foundation would work with leading mining schools in Canada and South Africa in a bid to make EKSU’s Department of Geology the best in Africa within five years.
At EKSU, he said the foundation’s Project Digi-Teach was aimed at bringing all 650 lecturers to full digital teaching proficiency, while high-speed Starlink internet had been installed at 12 locations across the university campus.
He challenged the present generation to demonstrate similar courage.
“Ekiti State has mineral resources, cash crops and excellent human capital. Our first 30 years proved that the state could exist. The next 10 must prove that Ekiti State will lead,” he declared.
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