Forty four final year Veterinary students at the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB) have had a firsthand look at what a career in Veterinary Medicine can look like outside a clinic, following a field trip that took them through the commercial and operational realities of the industry.
The 600 level students from the College of Veterinary Medicine visited Totmak Farmers Centre in Arigbajo Ifo, Ogun State, on 13 March 2026, where they were walked through a working veterinary enterprise covering pharmaceutical operations, livestock health management, and agribusiness.
Students were taken through the facility's veterinary pharmacy, diagnostic room, post mortem section, feed store, vaccine chamber, and media unit, and introduced to quality control procedures, inventory management, biosecurity measures, and the role of technology in pharmaceutical marketing and regulatory compliance. The 44 students were split into four groups to allow for more detailed engagement with professionals at each station.
Those who spoke about the experience said it shifted their understanding of what the profession entails. One student described the visit as "an eye opening experience," noting that it revealed the business dimensions of veterinary medicine, particularly in drug distribution, consultancy, and livestock health management. Another said the trip reinforced the importance of Entrepreneurship in building a sustainable career, especially within Nigeria's agricultural sector.
The excursion was coordinated by the Head of the Department of Veterinary Pharmacology and Toxicology, Olubukola Adenubi, alongside academic staff including Joshua Oyewusi, Samuel Attama, Olufunke Oliyide, and Damilare Dosunmu, as well as Laboratory Technologist Charles Leigh.
At a time when Nigerian graduates face a contracting formal job market, the message the students took back to campus was clear: the veterinary profession offers more entry points for entrepreneurship than most of them had previously considered, and the gap between a degree and a viable business may be smaller than it appears.
