Professor Ayo Olajuyigbe
(mnimc, fnitp, rtp)
Professor Ayo Olajuyigbe was born in Aramoko-Ekiti, Ekiti State, Nigeria. He attended Aramoko District Secondary School, Aramoko Ekiti. He later proceeded to the Federal School of Arts and Science, Ogoja, Cross River State, Nigeria for his Advanced Level Certificate course. He was subsequently admitted to the University of Ife (Now Obafemi Awolowo University) for his Bachelors’ Degree in Geography. He later proceeded to the University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria for Masters’ Degree in Urban and Regional Planning.
Ayo also bagged a Postgraduate Diploma in Urban Surveys and Human Settlement Analysis from the Institute of Aerospace Surveys and Earth Sciences (ITC), The Netherlands. He later completed a PhD in Urban and Regional Planning of the Federal University of Technology, Akure, Nigeria. He is a Registered Town Planner (RTP), a Fellow of the Nigerian Institute of Town Planners (FNITP) and Member of the Nigerian Institute of Management Consultants (MNIMC).
Ayo is currently a Professor of Urban and Regional Planning at the Federal University of Technology, Akure, Nigeria. He specializes in Infrastructural Planning with bias in Water and Sanitation. His other areas of research interest include Coastal Management and Planning, Environmental Management and Risk & Disaster Management. Olajuyigbe was a Western State of Nigeria Scholarship Awardee (1972 – 1976), the scholarship that made him to be one of the 100 most brilliant students in the then Western State; National Scholarship Award Recipient (1979 – 1982); a 3-time Netherlands Fellowship Award recipient (1991 – 1992; 2007 and 2015) and TETFUND University Research Grantee (2013, 2016 and 2020).
Ayo has published over 50 research journal articles in reputable journals within and outside Nigeria and he is globally cited. He has successfully supervised 4 PhD and 23 Master’s Degree students. He won the prestigious award of the Southwest Nigeria Outstanding Lecturer of the Year in 2019.
Before his appointment at the Federal University of Technology, Akure, Ayo worked briefly as a Town Planning Officer with the old Ondo State Ministry of Lands and Housing and as Deputy Director in both Ondo and Ekiti State Environmental Protection Agencies. He later proceeded to join the services of the United Nations Development Programe (UNDP) as a State Programme Monitoring Adviser (SPMA), the position that offered him opportunities to touch several lives especially in rural areas in Nigeria.
Over the years, Ayo has consulted widely for UNICEF, World Bank and other multinationals within and outside Nigeria prominent among which are Dangote Group, South West Bitumen Ltd, Olokola Free Trade Zone Enterprise, Ondo State Development and Investment Promotion Agency (ONDIPA), Federal Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs, Nigeria Erosion and Watershed Management Project (NEWMAP – World Bank), Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Global Biofuels Limited, Kenana Group (Sudan), Sunti Golden Sugar Estate (UK/Nigeria), International Marine and Dredging Consultants (Belgium), Sunmoyo Productive Power Ltd (Australia) among others.
He led the consultancy outfit that carried out the Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) of Dangote Refinery, the largest investment portfolio in Africa. Other landmark studies led by him include the ESIAs on Dangote Fertilizer, Southwest Bitumen Exploration and Mining (the first in Africa), Dangote Sugar Refinery at Tunga; Resettlement Action Plan (RAP) for the Ondo State Deep Sea Port Project and several Resettlement Action Plans (RAPs) for NEWMAP (a World Bank Project) in Nigeria. At the Federal University of Technology, Akure, he served as Associate Director, Centre for Research and Development (CERAD) and later as Acting Director, Centre for Entrepreneurship (CENT). He is currently the Director, University Advancement Centre. As part of his contributions to community development, Ayo led the group of experts that reviewed the FUTA Campus Master Plan and also the design of FUTA Teaching Hospital Campus Master Plan.
Professor Ayo Olajuyigbe is happily married and the marriage is blessed with children.