The University of Ibadan (UI) has once again been named Nigeria’s leading research university in the latest AD Scientific Index, released on October 1, 2026.
According to Emeritus Prof. Peter Okebukola, Chairman of the Nigerian Tertiary Education Ranking Advisory Committee (NiTERAC), UI ranked 889th globally out of nearly 19,800 universities, placing it among the top 4.5 per cent worldwide and making it the only Nigerian university in the global top 1,000.
Federal Universities DominateThe report revealed that eight of Nigeria’s top 10 universities are federal institutions, including:
University of Nigeria, Nsukka (2nd nationally)University of LagosObafemi Awolowo University
University of IlorinAhmadu Bello UniversityNnamdi Azikiwe UniversityBayero University.
This distribution suggests that research strength is becoming more widely spread across Nigeria’s federal university system.
The report also highlighted individual achievements:Mayowa Owolabi (UI): Nigeria’s most-cited researcher with 257,748 citations, ranked 676th globally.
Shafiu Mohammed (ABU): Second nationally with 242,300 citations, ranked 776th globally.Olayinka Ilesanmi (UI): Third nationally with 185,602 citations.
Sixteen of Nigeria’s top 25 most-cited scholars are based in federal universities, with UI alone contributing five.
Nigeria’s Global StandingNigeria ranked 48th out of 221 countries and third in Africa, with 384 institutions and 53,580 scientists indexed.
The country now has more indexed scientists than South Africa and Egypt, though spread across a larger number of institutions.
The report urged Nigerian universities to focus on improving research quality, citation impact, and international collaboration, noting that “the message from the AD Scientific Index is therefore not one of arrival, but unmistakably one of forward movement.”
The findings align with the Times Higher Education World University Rankings, which recently increased Nigeria’s representation from 24 universities in 2026 to 29 in 2027.
UI and the University of Lagos retained places in the 801–1000 global band, while Ahmadu Bello University and University of Ilorin moved up to the 1001–1200 band.