Economic Commission for Africa
African Centre for Statistics
STATCOM-AFRICA III
Third meeting of the Statistical Commission for Africa
Cape Town, South Africa, 18-23 January 2012
African Statistics Award
Citation
Professor Biyi Afonja
During a long and illustrious academic and public service career spanning about 30
years, Professor Biyi Afonja served Nigeria and the continent in several capacities.
At the national level, Professor Afonja served, among others, as Research Officer in
the Federal Department of Agricultural Research, Ibadan; Professor carrying out research
and teaching at the University of Ife and the University of Ibadan; Head of the Department
of Statistics, University of Ibadan, and as a consultant to various government agencies such
as the Federal Office of Statistics, the National Population Commission, and the Nigerian
Institute for Oil Palm Research.
He also served as President of the Nigerian Statistical Association from 1985 to 1987,
and Editor-in-Chief of its Journal from 1983 to 1985 as well as Chairman, Nigeria’s National
Advisory Council on Statistics from 1977 to 1980. He successfully supervised students for the
Master’s and Ph.D degrees of the University of Ibadan, being the first Nigerian Professor to
produce Ph.D graduates in Statistics. He has served as external examiner to several Nigerian
universities including the University of Nigeria, Ahmadu Bello University, University of Ilorin,
University of Jos, and Bendel State University.
Professor Afonja has also held several senior positions in the education sector in
Nigeria. He was Commissioner for Education in the former Western State of Nigeria;
Chairman of the Governing Council, Ogun State College of Education; Pro-Chancellor and
Chairman of Council, Ogun State University; Chairman/Convener, Association of Prochancellors of state-owned universities; and Member of the Governing Council of the
University of Ife.
Professor Afonja also contributed to statistics education in Africa, being an external
examiner to various universities, notably the National University of Lesotho, University of
Swaziland, University of Botswana, and Addis Ababa University. He was the President of the
African Statistical Association from 1985 to 1987.
At the international level, Professor Afonja was the Chief Statistical Training Adviser
and Project manager for the Statistical Training Programme for Africa (STPA) from 1980 to
1981 and Vice-President of the International Statistical Institute (ISI), 1987 to 1989, serving
on its Advisory Task Force on Statistical Education, the Task Force on Tertiary and Technical
Education and the Nomination Committee.
He was Senior Statistician and Statistical Adviser at the United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP) in New York, and has consulted for many international organizations,
such as the Food and Agricultural Organization, World Health Organization, the United
Nations Department of Technical Cooperation for Development (UNDTCD), and the World
Bank.
Professor Afonja has substantively published in reputable journals such as The
Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, The Annals of Statistical Mathematics, Biometrika,
Biometrics, Tropical Agriculture, Experimental Agriculture, The Nigerian Agricultural Journal
and the Journal of the Nigerian Statistical Association. He has also published two books
titled “Introductory Statistics: A Learner’s motivated Approach,” and an award-winning one
titled “In His Hands: The Autobiography of a Nigerian Village Boy.”
Prof Afonja holds a London University Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics obtained
through the University College, Ibadan in 1960; Diploma in Statistics from the University of
Aberdeen, 1963; and both Masters and Doctoral degrees in statistics from the University of
Wisconsin, 1968 and 1970 respectively, where he was exempted from writing a Master’s
thesis on account of the high quality of his published works.
He is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society, the first Nigerian to have
been so honored, a Fellow of the Nigerian Statistical Association and has also been honored
with the Medal of Honor, Ville de Paris as a Vice President of the ISI in 1989.
On account of his contributions to statistical education in Africa, especially the
Statistical Training Programme for Africa, and to the statistical profession in general, the
Statistical Commission for Africa (StatCom-Africa) at its third meeting held in Cape Town,
South Africa on the 18th day of January 2012, honors Professor Biyi Afonja with the African
Statistics
Award.