By Princess-Ekwi Ajide, Abuja
Discussions on strengthening Africa’s Higher Education in a post COVID-19 world were tops on the agenda for stakeholders at the third Annual global meeting of the forum for Innovation in African Universities, FIAU, in Abuja
The discussions dwelt mainly on seeking solutions to ending challenges in African Universities through partnerships.
On this backdrop, panelists tinkered on fostering sustainable university-industry partnership, African universities and global North pillars for win- win partnership, integrating technology and entrepreneurship in universities and strengthening resource constrained African universities through partnerships.
Declaring the meeting open, the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education, David Adejo, said Africa was able to deal with the health challenges of COVID-19 but still lagging behind in solving the socio economic challenges of the pandemic.
He hailed the programme, saying it speaks to contemporary issues as an opportunity to making Africa becoming a destination of choice for the global market.
Other speakers at the event included a former African Union Commissioner for Education, Professor Sarah Agbor, the Director General of Industrial Training Fund, Sir Joseph Ari, former Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission, Professor Abubakar Rasheed among others.
They harped on the need for governments to walk the talk in training students so as to create pathways to making graduates versed in their choice of trade and self made employers of labour rather than being dependent on white collar jobs.
Earlier, the conveners of the meeting, Paschal Anosike and Klaus Schneider, called for the use of innovation to facilitate student’s learning so as to harness the potential of African students for a better future.
