With innovation in higher education in discourse, over 300 experts from across Africa have expressed the conviction that Nigeria has the potential to spearhead an educational transformation that would position the continent to become the global economy’s future manpower resource base. Such submissions were made at the inaugural African Leadership University Reimagine Education Conference in Lagos on Friday, March 22, 2024, which deliberated on innovation capital in higher education on the continent.
The theme of the one-day conference was, What a Transformative Education can do for Nigeria. In his welcome address, Veda Sunassee, Chief Executive Officer of African Leadership University (ALU), organisers of the event, said the importance of higher education in Africa’s socio-economic development cannot be over-emphasised, especially as 40 per cent of the global population is projected to be African at the turn of the century. However, only a paltry 9.2 per cent of the African population is in higher education, the very bedrock of manpower development, noting that this situation makes it imperative to invent and power Africa-centric innovation in education.