The Nigerian Baptist Convention also operates several hospitals and medical training institutions across the country.[5] The Baptist Medical Centre in Ogbomoso, now called Bowen University Teaching Hospital, remains one of the leading hospitals and has been in use as a university teaching hospital by the Bowen University in Iwo, since December 2009.[6] The Nigerian Baptist Convention operates other top flight Baptist medical centres (with Schools of Nursing and Midwifery) located in Eku and Saki; and several other minor Baptist hospitals across Nigeria.[7] Others includes Oliveth Baptist Hospital, Oliveth heights, Oyo, Oyo State.
The Convention has 15 affiliated primary and secondary schools, gathered in the Directorate of Baptist Mission Schools. [8]
It has Bowen University, named in honor of Rev. Thomas Jefferson Bowen, the first American Baptist missionary to Nigeria from the Southern Baptist Convention.[9] Bowen University is located at Iwo in Osun State. Bowen University opened in 2002 as a residential institution with 500 students with a current enrollment of about 3,000 students, and a target capacity of at least 5,500 students. The idea of a Nigerian Baptist university was conceived in 1938,[10] and endorsed in 1957 by the Nigerian Baptist Convention. Bowen University is “conceived as a centre of learning and research of distinction, combining academic excellence with love of humanity, borne out of a God-fearing attitude, in accordance with the Baptist tradition of ethical behavior, social responsibility and democratic ethos”.[11]
^Chima Jacob Korieh, G. Ugo Nwokeji, Religion, History, and Politics in Nigeria: Essays in Honor of Ogbu U. Kalu, University Press of America, USA, 2005, p. 96
^Femi Adelegan, Nigeria's Leading Lights of the Gospel: Revolutionaries in Worldwide Christianity, WestBow Press, USA, 2013, p. 10
^Baptist World Alliance, Members, baptistworld.org, USA, retrieved May 5, 2023
^I. A. Adedoyin, A Short History of the Nigerian Baptist: 1850-1978, Nigerian Baptist Bookstore, USA, 1998, p. 57
