Withbraindrain

Investment in private higher education will be an effective development tool for Africa

The private sector in Africa offers courses which are a quid pro quo for students: they invest money and get a return immediately.

The number of private universities operating in Africa is growing, and the sector is generating a groundswell of interest among investors. In 1960, there were seven private universities in Africa, according to a 2012 statement by Olugbemiro Jegede, then Secretary General of the Association of African Universities. By 1990 there were 27, and by 2006, some 22 percent of student enrolment on the continent was at private institutions, he said.

The African Leadership University plans to build a network of 25 universities across Africa in the next 25 to 30 years that will educate 250,000 students at any one time, one of its founders, Fred Swaniker, told the website howwemadeitinafrica.com in December. A campus opened in Mauritius last year, and others are to follow in Rwanda and Nigeria between 2017 and 2019.

Another private university is the Lancaster University in Ghana, a “branch campus” of the UK institution supported by Transnational Education, which runs a Dubai-based educational foundation. Others include the Ashesi University in Ghana, the British University in Egypt and the United States International University in Kenya, all established in the last decade. percent of Africans had college degrees as compared to 30 percent of North Americans and Europeans, he added.

Meanwhile, Africa has the fastest growing middle class in the world, according to the African Development Bank (ADB), which accords middle class status to anyone spending between $2 and $20 a day. About 327 million people, or one third of Africa’s population, belong to this group, a doubling in less than 20 years. By 2060, some 42 percent of the population on the continent will be middle class, according to another ADB report.

With more money available, parents and students are willing to devote a very high proportion of their income to education in Africa, said a November 2015 article for Proparco, a Paris-based development finance institution. A 2010 Mckinsey report estimated that Africa’s private spending on education would grow by 4.9 percent between 2008 and 2020.

Second, investing in private tertiary education in Africa is good business. Claudia Costin, Senior Director for Education at the World Bank Group, told the African Higher Education Summit in Dakar, Senegal, in March 2015 that returns on investment in higher education are the highest in Africa, at 21 percent.

Third, investment in higher education will help the continent to develop and retain sources of innovation and new ideas. Currently, over 500,000 African students study overseas each year, a large percentage of them funded by government subsidies. Many do not return to their home countries. Setting up institutions in Africa would help retain talent and also afford opportunities to build centers of excellence on the continent.

Fourth, investment in private higher education would align with a growing need for analytical skills. In