The African Development Bank (AfDB) recently announced that it has invested US$65mn in science and technology-related projects in Nigeria
Nigerian daily business newspaper, BusinessDay, reported that the AfDB projects in Abuja were aimed at enhancing vocational education and science and technology studies, as well as boosting the technology sector.
Dore Ousmane, a resident representative of AfDB, said, “The bank is addressing skill-building and knowledge transfer [and] in the context of that strategy we intend also to address skills shortage because this has been a hindrance to growth in Africa.”
The bank currently has two ongoing projects, one at the African University of Science and Technology and one offering a skills training and vocational development project for students.
The bank said it would also be embarking on a forthcoming project at the Pan-African University, with courses hosted at the University of Ibadan.
It argued that higher education and science and technology strategies are the key to tackling the issue of development in Africa and projects aimed at the improvement of higher education are part of the bank’s medium-term strategies to improve the labour market across the continent.
Ousmane said the essence of the projects was to create youths with technological knowledge that could move the nation forward “because the way to growth is technology”, he claimed.
He added that the bank believed the projects would make a difference in the Nigerian technology sector by helping to create jobs for the growing young population.
