Prof. Ogechi Adeola is the cover personality for the 50th edition of Inspiring Woman Africa (IWA) magazine, featured in a wide-ranging interview titled “Global Representation of African Excellence.” The feature was published on August 11, 2026, and written by Kemi Ajumobi.
The profile traces Prof. Adeola’s journey from her childhood in Enugu, Nigeria, as the fourth of eight children, through a career that has spanned law, banking, and academia. She recalls writing her first novel at age eight, a detective story titled “Saving Her,” and credits her secondary school principal’s challenge to “get your meal ticket” as an early lesson in self-reliance that shaped her path.
In the interview, Prof. Adeola reflects at length on her current role as Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Research, Innovation and Enterprise at the University of Kigali, describing university leadership as fundamentally about “institution building” and stewardship rather than hierarchy. She also shares a deeply personal account of her professorial conferment and inaugural lecture, recalling her father’s presence in the audience at age ninety-two and describing how her academic path became “a tribute to his unfulfilled aspiration” of becoming a professor himself. Her father passed away earlier in the year at the age of ninety-five.
A significant portion of the interview focuses on her research into indigenous African enterprise, particularly the Igbo apprenticeship system known as Igba Boi, which she has studied and documented through her Emerald Publishing volume “Indigenous African Enterprise: The Igbo Traditional Business School” and her co-authored book with Valentine Ozigbo, “Igba-Boi: Repositioning the Igbo Apprenticeship System.” She describes the system as a “School without Walls” and discusses her recent contribution to a BBC feature examining its role in entrepreneurship and wealth creation.
Life is not a sprint; it is a relay.
The interview also revisits her most recent academic honour, being ranked among the Top 10 Scientists in Rwanda and the country’s highest-ranked scholar in Business and Management in the 2026 AD Scientific Index. She places this alongside her earlier recognitions, including being ranked the No. 1 scientist in Nigeria for Marketing and No. 6 in Business and Management by the 2025 AD Scientific Index, her inclusion in the Stanford–Elsevier Top 2% Most Influential Scientists in the World, and her listing among Nigeria’s Top 100 authors by scholarly output on Elsevier’s SciVal platform.
Prof. Adeola discusses her advisory work with Afreximbank and the International Labour Organisation, her advocacy for African business schools to develop curricula rooted in both global best practice and indigenous knowledge systems, and her advice to women and early-career academics: “pursue excellence before you pursue titles.”
The full interview is available in IWA Magazine’s 50th edition, alongside features on leadership, financial wellness, and holistic living from other contributors.
