Our History

Professor Akinsola Olowu – a distinguished professor of international repute established the Ife Centre for Psychological Studies/ Services in 1993 and PsychologIA (Ghana) Ltd in 1999. The Nigeria outfit publishes IFE PSYCHOLOGIA. An International Journal that comes out promptly twice (March & September) a year and in special editions, the Ghanaian outfit propagates the activities of the Ife Centre for psychological studies/services. It facilitates the teaching and learning of psychology through its film projects. The outfits equip and construct psychology laboratories. Professor Olowu was the Coordinator of the GENDER & BEHAVIOUR project of the Ife Centre for Psychological Studies/Services in consortium with the Network of Psychological Studies of Women Issues, Department of Psychology, University of Ibadan. Gender & Behaviour has been published in June and December since the year 2003.

Professor Akinsola Olowu studied psychology at the Universities of Lagos, Manchester and Bradford. He was a member of staff of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife since May 1976 and was promoted the Professor of Psychology on the 1st October, 1990. He worked at the University of Nairobi, Kenyatta University, Egerton University, Njoro all three in Kenya from September 1988 to March 1990. He paid academic visits to the University of Swaziland under the auspices of the African Academy of Sciences in 1992 and the University of Saarland, Saarbruchen, Germany under the auspices of the Volkswagen Foundation in 1994. That year Professor Olowu was granted the Witkins/Okonji Travel award by the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology (IACCP) This psychologist was a resource person at the CODESRIA (Council for Development of Social Science Research in Africa) at the 1998 Governance Institute, Dakar, Senegal. Professor Olowu was a visiting Professor at the University of Cape Coast, Ghana from 1998 to the year 2000. This was immediately after he had been Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences at OAU, Ife from 1995 to 1997. Sola Olowu, who is the pioneer Professor of Psychology at Ife gave his inaugural lecture on EXPLORATIONS INTO THE PERSON in June 1994. Olowu was a certified psychotherapist and a practicing psychotraumatologist. This professor worked and published in the areas of personality, personnel management, psychotherapy, social psychiatry and conflictology.