Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has embarked on a centre of excellence project meant to shore up capacity of Nigerian universities. The model is also designed as CBN Collaborative Postgraduate Programme (CBN-CPP). The first phase covers the University of Ibadan, University of Nigeria (UNN) Nsuka and Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria. On August 22, 2019, President Muhammadu Buhari commissioned the ABU Centre.
Many years ago, it was common place for foreign students to seek better education in Nigerian universities than was available in their home countries. Then, there were only a handful of universities in Nigeria but they were regarded as high quality citadels of learning and highly respected internationally. Now, with a population of over 200 million, Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa with largest GDP of $397.2 billion in 2018. The country had a total of 170 universities as at March 2019 comprising of 43 federal, 48 states and 79 private. Yet it does not have a representative in the QS World University Ranking of 1000 institutions (QSWUR).
It’s noted that facilities in the Nigeria’s federal universities “have become an eyesore, thereby reducing them to shadows of citadel of learning. As a result, the Academic Staff Union of Universities and students have been protesting for a change to no avail.
“The degenerate existence of our universities explains why they are not well-regarded even in Africa, let alone globally. Interventions from the Petroleum Development Trust Fund and Tertiary Education Trust Fund in funding the building of halls of residence, libraries, lecture halls and award of postgraduate scholarships to deserving academics seem to be tokenisms against the background of the degree of the prevailing mess. Quality is critical in university education. These universities should be radically overhauled to attract international students and faculties – two critical criteria that confer universalism on them, from where their origin was derived.”
Vice Chancellor of University of Ibadan, Professor Abel Idowu Olayinka identified said federal universities were the most heavily subscribed options by the teeming candidates over state and privately owned but because of cost, public universities lacked adequate space to accommodate all the candidates. He explained that 10,000 candidates applied to study medicine and surgery in his institution but only 150 were admitted “because we don’t want to compromise the quality that we are producing. If there is money, we can expand the scope, build more hostels and classrooms.”
That story gloomy story is presently being brightened by Central Bank of Nigeria through the injection of N63 billion into the construction of centres of excellence in nine universities across the six geo-political zones. The model is designed also to accommodate the Central Bank of Nigeria Collaborative Postgraduate Programme (CBN-CPP).
The CBN Centre of Excellence was conceived as a world class postgraduate school focused on various business and finance disciplines. The facilities and infrastructure at Centre have been designed as state-of-the-art complexes comprising a faculty building and hostel building.
In conceiving this project, the aim of the bank was to ensure students at postgraduate levels in Economics, Accounting, Banking and Finance, Business Administration and Statistics study in a serene environment that would stimulate effective learning with a view to building human capacity for the financial services sub-sector. The pilot Phase of the project covered the three premier Universities in Nigeria, the University of Nigeria; Enugu, University of Ibadan; Ibadan and Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. Six additional universities to be picked from each of the six geopolitical zones will also benefit.
The CBN Centres of Excellence was conceived as a world class postgraduate school focused on various business and finance disciplines. The facilities and infrastructure at centres have been designed as state-of-the-art complexes comprising a faculty building and hostel building.