October 27, (THEWILL) – Ahead of his 94th birthday next week, legal luminary, Aare Afe Babalola has come to the aid of financially strapped young people in Nigeria who desire to learn, study privately and earn degrees without attending any higher institution through his Afe Babalola Centre for Transnational Education. Recall that the educationist was recently conferred with a Honorary Fellowship by King’s College, London, a respected college of the University of London.
The fellowship was conferred on him in recognition of his transformative contributions to education and the society at large, following a huge philanthropic gesture of £10 million (N5.6billion at that time) to the institution for the establishment of a Centre for Transnational Education to enable young Africans have access to quality education and opportunities.
Babalola, who is also the founder of Afe Babalola University, ABUA, Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State also announced the commencement of free ante-natal and a normal delivery programme for pregnant women which he christened ‘Afe Abiye’ in Ado-Ekiti.
Similarly, the nonagenarian bothered by how people can overcome hunger, also floated two cooperative societies for Ado indigenes starting off with N200 million. One for men and one for women. Each of these two cooperative societies were given N100 million to enable registered members to apply for loans to start his or her business.
These initiatives were unveiled penultimate week during the Afe Babalola Day. The Ewi of Ado, Oba Rufus Adeyemo Adejugbe had declared October 18 as Afe Babalola Day to be celebrated every year by the Ado Ekiti community in recognition of Babalola’s humanitarian services and contributions to the development of the society.
Ivory Ukonu is a versatile journalist with many years of experience, with entertainment and society reporting as her area of core competence.
