Chief executive officer of Nigeria's bank Access Holdings, Herbert Wigwe, is to contribute $500 million in Wigwe University to facilitate the development of the skills necessary for the financial and technology industries in the country, US media reported, citing the banking tycoon.
"To get the next set of leaders in banking, you need to create the right education for them. When you look at the real contribution of education, it’s beyond that money. It changes people, it changes countries," Wigwe was quoted by the media as saying.
It is planned that the Wigwe University will begin admitting students for undergraduate courses next year, according to the outlet. As much as $500 million is necessary for the institution to scale up in five years, the report noted.
In addition, the magnate highlighted that he would rely on the technologies rather than money to achieve the same quality of education as universities in the United States and the United Kingdom, the media reported.
"The school will be hybrid. I don’t need 100 years or billions of dollars to achieve the same quality of education as we find in those schools [in the US and the UK]. India is churning out a lot of developers through a single building," Wigwe added.
According to the outlet, around 1,400 students are expected to enroll in the university, this number is projected to reach 10,000 in five years. Tuition fees will be about $12,500 plus $4,171 a year.
As for the teaching staff, around 30% of it will presumably be hired from the US and the UK, the media revealed. Moreover, the tycoon reportedly plans to take part in teaching and mentoring himself as well as to involve some of the country’s biggest entrepreneurs, including billionaire Aliko Dangote.
The university is established amid the skill crisis in the country, where about 10.5 million children are not in school and only 11.8% of the nation’s working-age population earn a wage, the United Nations Children’s Fund reported.
However, the issue is being addressed with the help of investors and at the government level. Since 1999, about 147 private universities have been launched in the country along with 115 state-run institutions, according to media reports.
Moreover, Nigeria resorted to international cooperation to facilitate skill development. In late September, in order to boost cooperation in the field of nuclear education and to develop the Nigerian nuclear industry, Atomic Energy Commission of the West African country signed a memorandum of understanding with Russia's Tomsk Polytechnic University.