The Federal Ministry of Education has signed an agreement for a transformative initiative, which secured a groundbreaking opportunity for six Nigerian Universities to access funding under the EU’s Intra-Africa Mobility Scheme.
This is contained in a statement made available to newsmen in Abuja on Sunday by the Director of Press and Public Relations in the ministry, Mrs Folasade Boriowo.
Boriowo quoted the Permanent Secretary, Mrs Didi Walson-Jack to have signed the agreement at the Global Gateway High-Level event on education in Brussels, Belgium.
Walson-Jack said under the initiative, the European Union would spend 27 million euros in the education and healthcare sectors in Africa.
She explained that six Nigerian Universities were among educational institutions that would benefit from the 15 Intra-Africa Mobility Scheme Projects funded by the EU with €27 million under the flagship Youth Mobility for Africa.
According to her, the EU has allocated €1.8 million to each of the six projects under the scheme, providing a total of €27 million in funding.h
She added that the projects, to be facilitated by various Nigerian Universities, aimed to enhance learning mobility opportunities for students, trainees, and staff across the Continent, focusing on the development of high-level green and digital skills.
She listed the participating Nigerian Universities to include: the University of Lagos (UNILAG) for the CB4EE and GREEN STEM projects and the University of Port-Harcourt for the CREATE-Green Africa project.
Others she said are the Ebonyi State University for the GENES II and ORPHAN projects, and the Federal University of Technology and the University of Nigeria for the HCE Solutions project.
She emphasised that each university’s participation underscored the collaborative effort towards advancing education and skill development in Africa.
She added that the EU Commissioner for International Partnership, Jutta Urpilainen also launched a key initiative of the Youth Action Plan in EU external relations and the Africa-Europe Youth Academy.
Walson-Jack said the initiative would provide opportunities for formal and informal learning and exchanges to young people looking to improve their leadership skills and create networks between Africa and Europe.
She said Nigeria would also benefit from the recently launched regional Team Europe Initiative on opportunity-driven skills and vocational education and training in Africa.
She noted that this would orient Country-level vocational training initiatives towards concrete employment opportunities created by Global Gateway investments.