Department of Studies

His interest in teaching made him to join the service of Obafemi Awolowo University as a Graduate Assistant in September 1994 and rose to the rank of Senior Lecturer in 2003. While in the University he served as member many committees at the Departmental, Faculty and University levels notably the University Senate (elected from the University Congregation) 2002-2004 and Appointment and Promotion Committee (representing the University Congregation) 2002-2004.

He worked as Public Finance Expert (October 2005 – September, 2007) and Economist (February 2010 – December 2011) under the Policy Analysis and Research Project (PARP I & II), respectively which metamorphosed into the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic (NILDS). He formally transferred his service to NILDS on 2nd January, 2012 as Deputy Director of Research and was promoted to the rank of Director in 2017.

He was deployed to the Post Graduate Unit as Coordinator of the Post Graduate Programmes in February 2016, in addition to his responsibilities as Deputy Director of Research. He was later appointed as Director of the Department of Post Graduate Studies later re-named as Department of Studies (DoS) which currently houses both the Post Graduate and Higher National Diplomas programmes. He was deployed, in addition to his responsibilities, as DoS to Superintend, Department of Economic Development and Social Studies later re-name as Department of Economic and Social Research (DESR) on Friday 17th July, 2020. He managed the two Departments: DoS and DESR until 31st January, 2023 when another Acting Director was appointed for DESR.

The main thrusts of Asimiyu Abiola’s publications and the areas in which he had made contributions to knowledge have been in the areas of Public Finance, Development Economics, Economic Theory, Policy Analysis and Legislative Studies. Through his M.Sc. thesis, which was on the impact of deficit financing on economic growth and development, he has contributed to the study of Public Finance and Development Economics as fields of study in Economics. Also, through his Doctoral thesis on the gaps (savings-investment, export-import and budgetary gaps) among required and available resources to achieve sustainable economic growth, he has contributed to the areas of Development Economics in particular and Economics as a management science in general. Furthermore, through his almost two decades of legislative service and his legislative research reports and teachings he has contributed to practice and procedure in the legislature.

With respect to distinctions and awards he was a winner of Laureates of the Small Grants for Ph.D. thesis writing programme of the Council for the Development of Economic and Social Research in Africa (CODESRIA), Dakar, Senegal, 1999. Also a winner of Research Grant for Ph.D. degree thesis writing sponsored by the African Economic Research Consortium (AERC), Nairobi, Kenya, 2002.

Finally, through his trainings in Economics, researches, teachings and publications, which have been mostly in the areas of Public Finance and Development Economics and Legislative Studies, he has contributed to the development of Economics as a field of study in the Social Sciences and the legislature as an arm of government. He has about 50 publications in national and international journals, contribution to books, monographs and had attended many workshops and conferences.