Written by Colin McEvoy | November 6, 2025 | SHARE
Babs Omotowa, founding president of the Nigerian University of Technology and Management, will visit Lehigh University on Nov. 10 to share his vision for transforming higher education and innovation across Africa.
A leading voice in higher education and innovation in Africa will visit Lehigh University on Monday, Nov. 10, for an event exploring innovation, leadership, and the future of higher education in Africa and beyond.
Babs Omotowa, founding president of the Nigerian University of Technology and Management (NUTM), will speak as part of the Iacocca Global Leaders Speaker Series, hosted by the Lee Iacocca Institute for Global Leadership.
The event will be held Monday, Nov. 10, at 4:30 p.m. in HST 101, and is open to all Lehigh faculty, staff, and students. Pre-registration is required; visit here to register.
During a talk entitled “Oasis in Africa, For Africa and the World,” Omotowa will discuss the NUTM’s innovative approach to creating educational opportunities in Africa. He’ll also explore how NUTM aims to reverse Africa’s brain drain, equip graduates with globally competitive skills, and drive economic transformation in the continent.
“Through the Iacocca Global Leaders Speaker Series, we’re connecting our campus with higher-education leaders who are reimagining how universities can drive innovation and social impact,” said Cheryl Matherly, Vice President & Vice Provost for International Affairs. “NUTM is exactly the kind of leadership story we want our community to engage with.”
Founded in 2019 in Lagos, NUTM was conceived as a next-generation institution with a vision to cultivate leadership, innovation, and technology-driven problem-solving across the African continent.
The university’s model—emphasizing employability, entrepreneurship, and real-world impact—has drawn global attention and parallels the success of India’s Ashoka University, a partner institution through Lehigh’s Global Partnerships & Strategic Initiatives (GPSI) office.
Privately governed with strong philanthropic and corporate backing, the university was conceived as “Africa’s MIT” and seeks to address long-standing challenges in African higher education by combining global academic standards with deep local relevance.
“NUTM is more than a university; we are making a bold statement that Africa can and will shape the future of technology, business, and governance,” Omotowa wrote in a recent LinkedIn post.
NUTM’s academic model emphasizes interdisciplinary learning through its Technology, Entrepreneurship, and Design (TED) framework, which integrates STEM education with management, design thinking, and Intensive experiential projects with African companies.
Its one-year NUTM Scholars Programme brings together promising young professionals for immersive study and leadership development, with plans to expand into undergraduate and MBA offerings.
Before entering higher education, Omotowa held senior leadership roles in the international energy sector, including with Shell International and Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas. He now applies decades of experience leading global organizations and building public-private partnerships to NUTM’s mission of transforming higher education and leadership development across the continent.
The Lee Iacocca Institute for Global Leadership prepares current and future leaders to take on complex, multi-system, global challenges through applied research, dialogues with subject-matter experts, and experiential learning programs. Grounded in the praxis of systems thinking and idealized design, the Iacocca Institute embraces an interactive approach to problem solving and the conviction that we are better together.
The Institute and GPSI are part of Lehigh’s Office of International Affairs (OIA), which seeks to position Lehigh as a premier destination for the world’s best students, ensure all students have access to international education experiences, and prepare Lehigh community members to be global learners, citizens, and leaders.
Lehigh University added and deepened international partnerships across four continents this past year through research collaborations, mobility programs, and exchange pathways with more than 40 global partner institutions with which Lehigh has formalized agreements, according to the 2024-25 Partnerships Activity Report.