Meet Abimbola Windapo, First Woman Professor in Construction Management in Nigeria and South Africa

When women in academics want to blaze a trail, they usually leave us dazed.

Meet Abimbola Windapo, a first degree graduate from the University of Ife(now Obafemi Awolowo University) in 1987 who proceeded to University of Lagos to have her second degree in Construction Management in 1990 and subsequently had her Doctorate degree in Building (Construction Management option) from the same University of Lagos in 2005.

She is a member of many professional bodies in her native country as well as in her country of residence. She is a Fellow of the Nigerian Institute of Building; Registered Builder, Council of Registered Builders of Nigeria; a certified Construction Mentor and Professional Construction Project Manager of the South African Council for the Project and Construction Management Profession (SAPCMP) to mention a few.

She has her research interests in the Construction industry and housing development; and in The management of construction business and project organisations from a performance and practice (risk; quality; sustainability; health, safety and environment; use of technology) perspective.

In December 2020, she received the 2020 South African National Science and Technology Forum-South 32 Award in the Engineering Category. This made her emerge the first woman to hold a university professorship in Construction Management in South Africa and Nigeria. This announcement was made in the recently concluded Ad Hominem Promotions in the University of Cape Town, South Africa to become effective from January 2021 which is in recognition of Windapo’s research, teaching, social responsiveness and administrative abilities.

Excellence traits have since been evident in Prof. Windapo as she was also the first woman to get a degree in Building from University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife) in 1987 after which she graduated with a Distinction in Construction Management in 1990 during her Master’s degree program.

To Windapo, the recent elevation should serve as a message to her world especially female folks like her telling them they are limitless and their background is not enough to put their backs on the ground.

We are proud to be associated with Abimbola Windapo from the roots.