About Us

From early 2007, staff of the Natural History were mobilized by the University authority to seek for funding support from corporate bodies and individuals, towards the completion of the Museum Building. Visits were made to different Federal and State Ministries, agencies and Non-governmental organizations, the National Conservation Foundation and several individuals such as Chiefs Agboola Odeyemi and Philips Asiodu.



It was from these visits that the idea of writing a proposal to the Leventis Foundation was mooted. The Leventis Foundation has always been at the forefront of conservation efforts world wide. An important part of the proposal was that the Natural History Museum building, when completed will be named after the Foundation.



The foundation was very kind and generous in granting the request and it subsequently granted the sum of 468,000 Pound Sterling, to be released in four yearly instalments. In view of the modification of the design to include, the burglar proofs, ceiling and the surrounding landscaping work, the university had to provide extra monies for the completion of the project. Today we are celebrating a huge breakthrough. The problem of space has now been solved through the landmark donation by the Leventis Foundation who has also promised more funding support. The University is indeed grateful to the A. G. Leventis Foundation through Mr A. P. Leventis and Nigeria's Executive Director, Dr. Abimbola Adewumi for their tremendous goodwill.



BRIEF ABOUT THE LEVENTIS FOUNDATION (NIGERIA) LTD/GTE
The Leventis Foundation (Nigeria) founded in 1987 is an offshoot of the A. G. Leventis Foundation World Wide. The A. G. Leventis Foundation is active in several countries in Europe, Asia, the Americas and Africa including Cyprus, Greece, Britain, America, Ghana, France, Ukraine and Nigeria. The Foundation supports and finances initiatives in the area of education, culture, arts, science and environment. The emphasis varies from country to country depending on the judgment of the Trustees, and includes support to international organization such as IITA.



In respect of Nigeria, a country with the tenured personal and business linkages of the Leventis Dynasty is upwards of 80 years, the Foundation that commenced activities as "Nigeria Advisory Panel" in December 1979 has supported a variety of initiatives.

It started with donation of technical equipment, workshop tools and teaching aids totaling well over two million US dollars ($2,000,000) to Technical Colleges all over Nigeria between 1981 and 1987. As of the present, its core activity in Nigeria is its agricultural training programmes through which youths are attracted, encourage, trained and supported into suitable environment friendly agro-allied careers, especially as self-employed farmers. In addition, the Foundation through its Nigerian arm still encourage and assist other worthwhile education, cultural scientific and charitable causes, the latest of which is the Natural History Museum, Obafemi Awolowo University being the only Natural History Museum (NHM) in West Africa.



The A. G. Leventis Foundation Worldwide is chaired by Dr. A. P. Leventis, OFR,CBE an accomplished environmentalist who is the builder and financier of the APLORI (A. P. Leventis Ornithological Research Institute), university of Jos. The Nigerian arm is chaired by Bashorun A. A. Adesanya, an accomplished business developer.

Museum's Objectives

  • To conduct research into the vast natural and cultural history of Nigeria.
  • To serve as a repository of natural and cultural objects in Nigeria.
  • To create scientific awareness on natural and cultural resources of Nigeria through annotated exhibitions for public enlightenment in display galleries
  • To prepare data bases on natural history and cultural resources of Nigeria, and thus facilitate an information-retrieval system on them for use by the public and the scientific community as a basis for sustainable development.
  • To provide identification services on natural history and cultural objects to user groups especially pest control, workers in Archaeology, Agriculture, veterinary and Human Medicine
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