Nigerian tycoon Tunji Olowolafe funds West Africa's first eye surgery simulator in wife's memory

A trained doctor who left medicine in 1988 to build a construction company has funded the first ophthalmic surgical simulation centre in West Africa, and named it after his late wife.

The Gbemisola Olowolafe Centre for Ophthalmic Surgical Simulation was unveiled at the Guinness Eye Centre in Idi-Araba, Lagos, in a partnership between the Tunji Olowolafe Foundation, the National Postgraduate Medical College of Nigeria's Faculty of Ophthalmology, Lagos University Teaching Hospital and Lagos State University Teaching Hospital.

It houses an EyeSi Surgical Simulator, a machine that allows eye surgeons to rehearse procedures on a virtual patient. The device scores every movement and records every error, letting a trainee return to the same step the following day and attempt it again.

Cataract surgery and vitreoretinal work involve manipulating tissue measured in microns. A resident surgeon learns those movements by performing them, which across most of Africa means learning on a patient, because simulation equipment is scarce and expensive.

Olowolafe committed the money after a single pitch, by his own account.

"Naming this centre in memory of my late wife, Gbemisola, gives this project a purpose that goes far beyond infrastructure," he said, describing the facility as giving resident doctors a safe environment in which to master surgical precision before operating on patients.

His argument for funding it was about habit rather than technology.

"If I may be candid, across almost every profession and vocation in Nigeria, we don't place enough value on continuous education," he said. "Once we qualify, we collect a certificate, and we consider the job done for life. We make the mistake of thinking training is only for things we do not know. But the most vital training is in what we already know, reminding ourselves, over and over again."

He added: "This machine gives surgeons, whether they qualified last year or 30 years ago, a place to practise delicate movements over and over. It gives honest feedback, and it lets you come back the next day to get better."

The centre has admitted its first cohort of six trainees. Two travelled from Kaduna and Onitsha, which suggests it is already drawing residents from beyond Lagos.

The hospitals he built

Olowolafe holds an MBBS from the University of Ilorin and practised as a doctor before leaving clinical work in 1988 to co-found Deux Project Limited.

The company began by refitting and revitalising hospitals, and Lagos State was its principal client. Deux refurbished Lagos State University Teaching Hospital at Ikeja, constructed and equipped maternal and child care buildings across the state's general hospitals, built the burns unit at General Hospital Gbagada, and delivered the Lagos State Cardiac and Renal Centre. It also built the Bola Tinubu Diagnostics centre inside LASUTH.

The relationship began under Bola Tinubu's governorship of Lagos and continued under his successor, Babatunde Fashola. The company expanded from healthcare into civil engineering, construction, consultancy and maintenance, and Olowolafe became one of the more prominent figures in Nigerian public-private partnerships, chairing the Lekki Concession Company and Eko Rail.

The 2010 investigation

That proximity to the Lagos State government brought him into an anti-corruption investigation.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission arrested Olowolafe on April 23, 2010. Operatives had searched his home and office beforehand and removed documents. He spent three days in custody and was released on bail the following Monday.

The commission was examining Lagos State contracts awarded under Fashola. Olowolafe was questioned over allegations that he had acted as a proxy for the then governor.

Tinubu, by then a former governor, addressed the investigation publicly through his chief press secretary. "I can't be jittery over any alleged EFCC probe," he said. "I know I served my state well and laid a solid foundation for the renewal of Lagos, ensured prudence in resource management and put in place control mechanisms to ensure transparency and acceptability."

No charges were brought against Olowolafe, and nothing further was reported of the investigation. He has not addressed it publicly.

His association with the Lekki Concession Company resurfaced during the EndSARS protests of October 2020, when Nigerians online linked him to the toll gate at the centre of the demonstrations.

What else he owns

His interests now extend well beyond construction.

He is a non-executive director of West Power and Gas and among the principal shareholders of Eko Electricity Distribution Company, which supplies power across a large part of Lagos. He sits on the boards of Infracorp Nigeria, an infrastructure investment company, and the education technology firm uLesson. In 2009 he joined a consortium that took a substantial stake in GZ Industries, the aluminium beverage can manufacturer. He founded Generic Product Limited in 1996 and chairs Deux Investment Limited.

He was born in London and lives in Lagos. He serves as Chancellor of Ekiti State University and Pro-Chancellor of Miva Open University, and announced a ₦1 billion innovation fund for agricultural technology at the Ekiti university's convocation in April 2024.

Projects in his wife's name

The eye centre is the latest in a sequence established in memory of Gbemisola Olutayo Olowolafe.

The foundation has built an ICT hub and a community secondary school at Are-Ekiti, and launched a five-year scholarship programme at Miva Open University worth ₦1 billion, timed to the first anniversary of her death.

Olowolafe has directed money at Nigerian medicine before. During the Covid-19 pandemic he chaired Ekiti State's medical logistics committee, worked on upgrading the Oba Adejugbe Specialist Hospital, and established a molecular diagnostic laboratory at Ekiti State Teaching Hospital for testing.

"True medical stewardship lies in service, learning, and leaving something of lasting value for those who come after us," he said.

Neither the foundation nor its partners disclosed what the centre cost, or how many surgeons it expects to train each year.