Experts at the African Development Bank (AfDB) have called on African nations to attract private-sector collaboration in financing tertiary education.
This appeal was made during the ongoing Annual General Meeting of the AfDB and a high-level dialogue held in Kenya on Wednesday.
The experts emphasised the need for African countries to intensify efforts to secure private-sector financing to enhance tertiary education and equip the continent’s youth with competitive skills.
The dialogue, titled “Policy Dialogue on Innovative Financing for Tertiary Education in Africa: Revitalizing the Role of the Private Sector,” was organized in collaboration with the Kenyan government, the African Union Commission, and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH.
During a panel discussion at the bank’s 2024 AGM in Nairobi, the experts stressed the importance of political commitment to guarantee returns on private-sector investments in education.
This was highlighted in a statement sent to PUNCH Online as distributed by APO Group on behalf of the African Development Bank Group (AfDB) on Wednesday.
The AfDB statement quoted Jakaya Kikwete, the Board Chair of the Global Partnership for Education and former Tanzanian President, calling for a renewed commitment to increase national education expenditure to harness Africa’s demographic potential as the world’s largest future labour force.
“To build a stronger tertiary education pipeline, we need to build strong foundations with early learning, primary and secondary education to provide a talent pool of trained young people for lifelong learning that will make them thrive,” Kikwete said.
The Director-General of Africa, German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), Birgit Pickel, said: “This is the first Declaration of Intent between the two organizations in the field of education, and we highly welcome this collaboration.
“It’s a sign of our intent to scale up our joint commitment to vocational training and skills development in African countries. In light of the current challenges, this is more urgent than ever.”
The African Development Bank has been actively engaged in education and skills development since 1975, committing significant resources to strengthen science, technology, engineering, and mathematics infrastructure at tertiary levels and enhance sector policy environments.
The bank’s Vice President for Agriculture, Human, and Social Development, Dr. Beth Dunford, stated that the institution has committed $964 million to tertiary education and skills development over the past decade.
“The focus has been on strengthening infrastructure for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) and catalyzing private sector investments in skills development and job creation,” Dunford stressed.
She highlighted the Bank’s $80 million support for Nigeria’s Ekiti state Special Economic Zone project and a $23 million investment in Rwanda’s Centre of Excellence for Aviation Skills as projects that will help boost economies and create jobs.
Similarly, Prof. Mohamed Belhocine, the African Union Commissioner for Education, Science, Technology, and Innovation, said increased investment in tertiary education requires national, continental, and global action.
He noted that between 2017 and 2019, only seven African countries met the required 6 per cent of GDP expenditure on education, with the average standing at around 4 per cent of GDP.
Dr. James Mwangi, Group CEO of Equity Holdings, corroborated Belhocine by sharing how collaboration with tertiary institutions is boosting human resource development across the continent.
He mentioned that Equity Group has provided scholarships to at least 23,000 students in partnership with the Kenyan government.
During the session, the African Development Bank signed a Joint Declaration of Intent with GIZ to scale up joint commitments to skills development to enhance youth employability in Africa.
The collaboration through the Build4Skills initiative will place youth trainees for workplace training within Bank-supported infrastructure projects in agriculture, water, or transport sectors for 6 to 12 months.
Over 10,000 participants registered for the African Development Bank’s hybrid 2024 Annual Meetings, with around 5,000 delegates attending physically on Wednesday.
The African Development Bank Group (AfDB) is the premier multilateral financing institution dedicated to Africa’s development. It comprises three distinct entities including the African Development Bank (AfDB), the African Development Fund (ADF), and the Nigeria Trust Fund (NSF).
