By Adewale Kupoluyi
The newly-appointed Executive Director for the Nigerian Stored Product Research Institute (NSPRI), Ilorin, Kwara State, Prof. Lateef Sanni, has assumed office while appreciating the Federal Government for his appointment. According to Sanni, “There is the need for one to sustain one’s excellence, integrity, and productivity. And I will make sure that I work together with other team players”. The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, through the Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria (ARCN), had appointed the don as the new Executive Director of NSPRI.
The Professor took over from Dr. Patricia Pessu, who retired recently from the services of the institute. Prof. Sanni graduated from the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB), Nigeria with Second Class, Upper Division degree in the Department of Food Science and Technology in 1990. He obtained Master’s and PhD degrees in the Department of Food Technology, University of Ibadan in 1993 and 1999, respectively. He joined FUNAAB in 1993 as an Assistant Lecturer, and rose through the ranks to become a Professor of Food Science and Technology in 2008; he presented his inaugural lecture in 2015 and became Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Development) in 2017.
The don won the 2008 Consultative Group of International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) Award for Regional Technology Development in the Sub-Saharan Africa. He has over 27 years experience in research, consultancy and collaborations as a postharvest expert on tropical root crops, mostly implemented by the International Institute of Tropical Root Crop and Natural Resources Institute, United Kingdom. He is a project leader to the multi-million dollar European Union-Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation-sponsored projects since 2008 till date. He served as a resource person for the World Bank upscaling of flash drying experience in West Africa, and the Principal Investigator, the Food Developers Initiative and Food Science and Nutrition Network sponsored by Association of African Universities.
Prof. Sanni is Vice Chairman, Steering Committee of the African Women in Agricultural Research and Development, and former National President, the Nigerian Institute of Food Science and Technology. He has mentored over 20 junior academics across three continents and trained more than 100 First Degree, 30 Master’s and 18 PhD graduates with well over 100 scientific publications in national and international journals, proceedings, reports, reviews, and books. The new Executive Director was a former editorial member of the International Journal of Food Science and Technology as well as reviewer to many journals at national and international levels.
Prof. Sanni is the Chairman of Governing Council, Oyo State College of Agriculture and Technology (OYSCATECH), Igboora, Oyo State, Nigeria; the immediate past President, International Society for Tropical Root Crops (African Branch); and President, International Society for Tropical Root Crops. Meanwhile, the management of OYSCATECH, under the leadership of Prof. Akinola Akinlabi, and governing council members, have congratulated Prof. Sanni over his appointment. The Registrar, Mr. Rasheed Adeniji, quoted the Rector as saying that Prof. Sanni is an erudite scholar, exemplary, visionary leader of an impeccable standard and exceptional international researcher whose leadership acumen have not only impacted the academia, industry, the international community, and the college in particular, but the nation as well.
The Rector also noted the remarkable contributions of Prof. Sanni at FUNAAB, while serving as Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Development), and for building an economically-sustainable and Integrated Cassava Seeds System Phase II (BASICS II) and Cassava Adding Value for Africa Phases I & II projects. Prof. Akinlabi added that the Executive Director would record unprecedented achievements in the new assignment, considering his intellectual capacity and professionalism with which he conducts the affairs of the governing council of OYSCATECH and wished him unparalleled success in his new assignment.
NSPRI was established in 1948 as West African Stored Products Research Unit (WASPRU), to assess the quality of exportable crops from Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone, and The Gambia, to United Kingdom during the colonial era. It became Nigerian Stored Products Research Institute after country’s independence in 1960. The mandate of the institute allows it to carry out research into bulk storage problems of export commodities and local food crops and conduct research into improvement and maintenance of the quality of bulk commodity crops including cocoa, groundnuts, and palm produce; improvement and maintenance of the quality of local food crops including cereals, grains, pulses, tubers and any other local commodity under bulk storage.
