African Universities Must Spur on Economic Growth

While the World Bank and other multilateral institutions were quick to point out that basic education is what Africa needed, consensus has emerged that higher education is just as important. In that regard, there has never been a better time for the continent's universities to spur on growth. Throughout the world, universities are proving to be the engine of growth, as new ideas churned out of universities  are being turned into innovations that are creating world beating companies. What Africa needs now is not a discovery of more raw materials and commodities- though no less important, but a pursuit of ideas that will propel the continent forward.

In that respect then, Africa needs a Harvard or an MIT to be able to attract the best and brightest students from the rest of the continent, and channel them to the best careers, from which they will be able to create companies. This will call for an innovative education system that will allow the best minds the freedom to flourish. Currently, Africa's best and brightest routinely head abroad to Western countries, where there are
more facilities for them to flourish. Think for a moment if we could have about ten universities in the continent that could attract the best and brightest students from Africa and beyond. These students could then be taught African studies, entrepreneurship, and leadership skills, from which they could emerge with the knowledge and skills to help spur growth in the continent.

As the rest of the world looks for talent, there has never been a better time to utilize Africa's best brains to achieve this growth. We could look for examples from elsewhere to realize how huge of a benefit first class universities are to a society. According to the Kauffman foundation, a think tank that seeks to promote entrepreneurship, the value of companies created or co-created by the world famous Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), could be over a trillion dollars. If this were an isolated country, this would be the 17th largest economy in the world. This would roughly equal Africa's GDP levels. One is left to wonder, what if Africa had many such universities, wouldn't the continent be on a double digit growth rate? Wouldn't the continent have eliminated poverty a long time ago? For this to happen, African universities must be able to do certain things right:

-They must endear to become world class. This should see them admitting students and faculty from the continent and beyond.
- Devote more funds to research. While African universities have been great in teaching, they have not always been as great in research. There are so many problems in Africa that the African universities could research on, and it defeats logic why the research capabilities of the African universities are low.
-Aim to solve local problems in a global context. This will ensure that they become relevant to the communities around them.
-Collaborate more with other universities within and without Africa. This will increase the budget for research, and help to make their research much more widespread.

With these initiatives, African universities will not only be world class, they will in the process help to grow the African economies and lift more Africans out of poverty.