28/09/2026
OGBOMOSO, PLEASE SAVE JAARC. 🙏🏽😢
A major digital facility built for our children and our community is now up for sale.
This is not a story about a failed business.
It is a story about vision, sacrifice, investment — and a painful financing crisis.
For more than two decades, Revd Niyi Adebayo and his team have invested in education in Ogbomosoland through Zoe Schools, which started with just 13 pupils in 2004 and has grown to almost 3,000 pupils and students across seven centres.
Then came another dream.
A dream driven partly by the painful reality of students having to travel outside Ogbomoso for examinations — and the loss of young lives while travelling for UTME.
That dream became JAARC — Jacob Adebayo Afolayanka Resource Centre.
On September 10, 2025, a 550-capacity ICT/CBT Centre was commissioned at Abaa, Surulere LGA.
According to Rev. Adebayo, the centre is accredited for examinations and professional tests involving bodies including JAMB, WAEC, NECO, TRCN and the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria.
And here is the part Ogbomoso needs to hear:
JAARC IS NOT BEING SOLD BECAUSE IT LACKS PATRONAGE.
According to its founder, the centre has remained busy since opening.
JAMB activities.
WAEC.
NECO.
TRCN.
Nursing examinations.
Professional tests.
Digital training.
Student examinations.
More than 2,000 students from Zoe Schools reportedly use the facility for training and examinations every term.
And beyond commercial activity, the centre has also been used for community development.
Rev. Adebayo says about 402 senior secondary school students across selected communities received free basic computer and digital-literacy training through the initiative before the programme was halted following security challenges.
So why sell?
FINANCING.
The project was expanded from an initial 250-capacity plan to 550 capacity, alongside plans for a 150-capacity hostel.
When expected co-funding arrangements broke down, the founder says he resorted to borrowing heavily to keep the projects alive and repay obligations.
Some of those loans, according to his account, carried monthly interest rates of 6%, 7.5% and 8%.
That burden eventually became unsustainable.
And now, a facility that was built to help keep Ogbomoso's children from travelling elsewhere for digital examinations and training is being offered for sale — in whole or in part.
This should concern Ogbomoso.
Not because every private business must be rescued.
But because JAARC represents infrastructure that can serve our children, schools, professionals and the wider community for years to come.
Perhaps the solution is not for one individual to carry the burden.
Perhaps this is the moment for Ogbomoso businesses, philanthropists, alumni, traditional institutions, corporate organisations, NGOs, government agencies and community investors to ask:
CAN WE SAVE THIS FACILITY?
Can an investment consortium emerge?
Can the facility be acquired collectively?
Can strategic investors restructure the debt?
Can institutions partner with the centre?
Can Ogbomoso turn this challenge into an opportunity to own and preserve a major digital-education asset?
This is bigger than one man.
It is about whether a facility built in Ogbomoso, serving Ogbomoso and designed partly to solve an Ogbomoso problem can remain here and continue serving generations.
OGBOMOSO, PLEASE SAVE JAARC.
Let's not wait until it leaves our hands before we realise what we had.
🙏🏽
God bless Ogbomosoland.
God bless Oyo State.
God bless Nigeria.
A Voice for Ogbomoso | SAF🦅
Niyi Adebayo
