Babajide Akeredolu is a Chemical & Mining Engineer, a public policy enthusiast, strategic communications expert, a member of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers ( AiChe), a life time member of Omega Chi Epsilon Chemical Engineering Honours Society and a member of Phi Beta Sigma and a member of Tau Beta Pi engineering honours society.
Babajide Studied Chemical Engineering with minors in Business and Environmental Engineering at the New Jersey Institute of Technology where he was elected President of the African Student Association.
During this time, he facilitated the creation of the CONNECT Network, a hub aimed at fostering collaboration amongst students of African descent in conjunction with eight other African Students associations in New Jersey.
This will not be his only position as he went on to serve in several other elected positions at NJIT one of which was Chairperson Academic Excellence and Telecommunications of the reputable National Society of Black Engineers of the school’s chapter and went ahead to become the Telecommunications Chairperson of the region comprising of all STEM universities in North-eastern USA, Eastern Canada, and West Africa.
A passionate creative, he was the University’s head photographer and led the team of photographers of his campus newspaper.
He moved on to bag a masters’ degree in chemical engineering and petroleum refining at the prestigious Colorado School of Mines where he co-authored multiple peer-reviewed research papers in international journals including;
• “Correlation of chemical and physical properties of an Alaska heavy oil from the Ugnu formation” in 2012
• “A Rheological and Chemical Investigation of Canadian Heavy Oils from the McMurray Formation” in 2013
• “Viscosity of Alaska heavy oil saturated with methane” in 2013
• “Rheological and Chemical Properties of Alaska Heavy Oils” in 2014
Babajide’s passion for the advancement of Nigeria and understanding of non-conventional crude oil spurred him to pursue another masters’ degree in mining engineering at the reputable Queen’s University, Kingston, Canada where he conducted research on the effective extraction of bitumen from Oil Sands in Ondo State.
His research has been utilized by the Nigerian Federal Ministry of Mines and Steel and the Ondo State Government for the advancement of the processing of Bitumen in Nigeria.
Beyond his daily 9 – 5, Babajide’s interests span across policy development, reputation management, youth advancement with a particular focus on social impact investment and advisory on the effective adoption of the 4th industrial revolution in developing countries. His efforts in driving the adoption and localization of innovative technologies led him to cofound Nigeria Flying Labs Southwest Hub, a member of a 38-country network of hubs dedicated to accelerating positive impact of local aid, health, development and environmental solutions locally. The Southwest hub is the only Flying Lab in Nigeria and has been adjudged to be one of the most innovative in west Africa.
Babajide has been involved in the implementation of various impact projects, including the prototype creation and eventual implementation of the Ondo State Development and Investment Promotion Agency (ONDIPA); implementation of the Emerging Communities Africa, and The Akure Tech Hub – the first successful demonstration of sectorial partnerships involving the Government, Private Sector and Academia. As at today, Emerging Communities Africa serves as the primary point of contact between Nigerian based Hubs and the European Union.
Other activities where he consulted pro-bono for the state include the strategic planning for the Ondo State government in securing the world bank funded NEWMAP and RAAMP projects; value chain improvements in the agricultural sector with IDH and Dalberg in collaboration with the office of the SSA on Agribusiness and a host of many others.
He is the National Coordinator of the Pentagon Movement Group (PMG) an organisation pitched at bridging the gap in modern day politics between the youth and the older political age group as well as promoting development in governance through strategic and scientific research and analysis. Through PMG, he has impacted primary education in Ondo and Ekiti States by donating thousands of books to their State Universal Basic Education Boards.
PMG has played a significant role in portraying Ondo State as a youth friendly state and his efforts have been distinctively recognised by the National Youth Wing of the All-Progressive Congress. This recognition gave rise to his inclusion into the Southwest Lobby group of the party and more recently, the National Lobby committee of the party.
Babajide has also had the opportunity of serving in various committees within and outside Ondo State. In 2016, he was appointed as Secretary to the Education and Technology Committee of the Ondo State Strategic Development and Policy Committee (SDPIC). He also served as the technical lead for the SDPIC secretariat under the leadership of Mr Kunle Adebayo, this opportunity availed him the birds eye view of Ondo State in its entirety.
Additionally, he has served in other capacities within several committees of the APC including the 2019 APC Presidential campaign committee (Planning and Monitoring), the National campaign committee for Ondo State 2016 Election, National Campaign committee for Ekiti State 2018 election and Ondo State 2020 Election campaign committee (APC) on Strategy and Communications.
In 2020 the Ondo state government appointed him as secretary to a 6-man Covid-19 Fundraising Committee where he assisted the State in raising over 700 million naira leading to a ranking as the 3rd largest donor fund of any state in the Country. Ondo State was also ranked as one of only 3 states to publicly share its Covid-19 Fund accounts under a Freedom of Information request by concerned NGOs.
Prior to Babajide’s appointment, he served as Secretary to the Ondo State Transition Strategy and Implementation committee which was charged with the responsibility of assisting the state to design a systematised onboarding process for the current and subsequent administrations.
With the committee’s support, the state was able to create a strategic theme envisioned to drive the administration’s activities for the new dispensation tagged “the REDEEMED agenda”. The committee also recommended the formation of a monitoring unit, the Performance and Project Implementation Monitoring Unit (PPIMU).
A worthwhile mention will be the efforts of this committee inline with Mr. Akeredolu’s activities that led to Ondo State being the first state and the only non-country to be recognized by the African Development Bank’s Delivery Unit Centre for Excellence Program.
To conclude, there is a hackneyed aphorism by Jonas Salk that proclaims, “the reward for a work well done is the opportunity to do more”. There is no iota of doubt in the competence, passion, and commitment of Mr. Babajide Akeredolu to the growth and development of our dear state and his patent heart of servitude to the good people of Ondo state. It is against this backdrop of the aforementioned activities and capabilities that he was deemed fit to take on the responsibility of improving the reporting system, performances and harmonisation across all MDAs.
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