TASUED VC – On 14th November 1958, a little baby joined the fold of womenfolk in Nigeria, crying, smiling, sucking and doing all the regular things that female babies do.
But little did the world know that a star was born! No, she would not grow to become a Jennifer Lopez or a Jackie Kennedy/Onassis; she was not cut out to thrive on the make-believe that acting evokes. She was not even birthed in an environment famous for producing stars, but like with the birth of Jesus Christ in lowly Bethlehem, little Oluyemisi Oluremi Obilade (Nee Ajao) was born in the sleepy little town of Ile Ogbo in Osun state.
After a traumatic childhood due to an inclement traditional conception of the position, potentials and role of the girl-child, she attended Mayflower School, Ikenne in Ogun State, perhaps a divine and early rehearsal for the future schedule with destiny. This move was apparently facilitated by the occupation of her father (Baba Agric) as a teacher in the school, but it proved to be fortuitous engender of her commitment to agriculture as the vocation, while the tutelage of a business-inclined grandmother honed her entrepreneurial inclination. She later proceeds to the then the University of Ile (now known as Obafemi Awolowo University) where she bagged the Bachelor of Education Degree (History/English) in 1980, the Master of Arts Degree in Adult Education (1984) and
As part of tutelage for future outstanding leadership assignments, she obtained the 2006 Executive Business Education Certificates of both the Harvard University Business School (USA) and the Cambridge University Judge Business School (UK).
In 2005/2006, she was awarded the International Women’s Federal (IWF) Leadership Foundation Fellowship as well as the HERS-SA Grant Fellowship. In 2008, she was awarded a Fellowship grant of the African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF) which gave her the opportunity to complete a certificate course in Resource Mobilization at the Ghana Institute for Management and Public Administration (GIMPA).
