The Department of Economics was established in October 1962 at the inception of the University of Ife, now Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria. The Faculty of Social Sciences evolved around the Department, which is the largest of the six departments in the Faculty of Social Sciences in terms of student and staff population.
The Department has remained central to the undergraduate and postgraduate programmes not only in the Faculty of Social Sciences but also to other Faculties/Colleges of the University such as the Faculties of Administration, Agriculture, Arts, Basic Medical Sciences, Education, Environmental Design and Management, Law, Science and Technology.
Since its establishment in 1962, the Department has progressively trained human resources for the management of the domestic and foreign economics. Most graduates of the Department have recorded impressive performances around the world.The Department offers B. Sc. Soc. Sc. (Economics) degree programme.
The objectives of the degree programme are:
-To train economists, who through the acquisition of economic principles and application of same, can analyze economic problems, with a view to coming up with alternative policy suggestions and their various implications.
-To train economists who are not just familiar with received economic theories, but who are also conscious of the limitations of those theories as they relate to an underdeveloped economic setting like that of Nigeria.
-To train economists who can design and formulate economic policies in the light of the above, which are socially relevant to Nigerian economic situation.
-To train economists who are through familiar with the Nigerian economic scene and its relation to the international economic environment.
