Prof. Jane Oyemine Modupe Ande: The Nigerian woman who broke new ground in accounting

Her work has further brought her into direct contact with Nigeria’s higher education and financial sectors. She served on a panel established by the Central Bank of Nigeria involving three federal universities — Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, the University of Ibadan and the University of Nigeria.

Her involvement in quality assurance in Nigerian higher education has also been extensive. Ande has served with the National Universities Commission (NUC) from 1999 to date on accreditation, verification and visitation panels to universities across the country.

Such assignments have placed her within some of the processes through which academic programmes and institutions are evaluated, accredited and monitored.

She has also served as an external examiner for PhD programmes in Accounting, including at Strathmore University in Nairobi, Kenya, reflecting her engagement with postgraduate education beyond Nigeria.

Her professional experience has equally extended into international development and leadership programmes.

She has served as an international faculty member of Haggai International for Advanced Leadership in the United States and worked as a consultant with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) on a mapping survey of HIV/AIDS in Nigeria in collaboration with TVT Synergy, New York.

Her career therefore demonstrates the breadth of opportunities available within academia when university scholarship intersects with professional practice, research, policy and institutional leadership.

For students and early-career academics, her trajectory also illustrates that a university career does not necessarily end with classroom teaching.

Academic work can extend into research grants, professional bodies, policy advisory roles, accreditation, consultancy, international collaborations and institutional leadership.

Ande’s contribution to accounting education has also been tied to the development of professional accountants. Through her leadership at the Nigerian College of Accountancy, she participated in the training and development of professionals entering the accounting field.

Her involvement in regional and global accounting organisations further positioned her within conversations around the development of accounting education and research in Africa.

The significance of her career is particularly notable in the context of women’s participation in academic leadership.

Becoming the first female Professor of Accounting in Nigeria and Africa represented a significant milestone in a discipline historically shaped by male academic and professional leadership.

Her career has subsequently included senior academic, administrative and professional responsibilities across multiple institutions and organisations.

After decades of service, Ande recently retired from the University of Jos. However, her professional contributions extend beyond her retirement from university service through the academic, research and professional institutions with which she has been associated.

She is married to Reverend Emmanuel Usman Ande, a retired banker, and they have four grown biological children and grandchildren.

For Nigeria’s university community, the career of Professor Jane Oyemine Modupe Ande offers more than a record of academic appointments and professional achievements.

It provides an example of how scholarship can intersect with university administration, professional accounting, research, public policy and institutional development.

Her four decades in academia also underline the role senior scholars play in shaping disciplines beyond their immediate classrooms through mentoring, research, professional associations, quality assurance and participation in national and international academic networks.

As African universities continue to confront questions around research capacity, professional relevance, institutional governance and the representation of women in academic leadership, the career of Professor Ande provides a substantial body of experience from which students, academics and education policymakers can examine the evolution of accounting education and university leadership on the continent.