The University of Abuja (UniAbuja), now Yakubu Gowon University, has launched Africa’s first Enterprise University, an initiative designed to transform university education by moving students beyond classroom learning into practical entrepreneurship, innovation, research commercialisation and enterprise creation.
Launched under the theme ‘Innovative Agriculture as a Tool for Sustainable Enterprise Growth and Youth Empowerment’, the programme was organised through the University of Abuja’s Centre for Entrepreneurship Development and Students Mentorship (CEDSM) and brought together representatives of government, development partners, academia and the private sector.
Speaking at the event, Hakeem Babatunde Fawehinmi, Professor and Vice-Chancellor, University of Abuja, described the initiative as a significant milestone in the university’s effort to make education more responsive to the needs of society and the economy.
Fawehinmi noted that the university has enormous potential across disciplines, particularly in science, technology, agriculture and the social and management sciences, to generate solutions to Nigeria’s development challenges.
He said the Enterprise University would provide a platform for students to translate knowledge acquired in the classroom into practical solutions and businesses capable of creating value.
The VC, on behalf of the institution, promised to support 10 students who are able to provide convincing concept notes.
Earlier, Adeniran Lateef Ariyo, Professor and Director of CEDSM, said Africa’s Enterprise University initiative was established to bridge the gap between what students learn in the classroom and what is required in the marketplace.
Ariyo said the university had considerable intellectual resources capable of solving real-world problems and creating businesses, adding that the Enterprise University was designed to provide a structured platform for turning such knowledge into sustainable enterprises.
He said the initiative would encourage students to move from knowledge acquisition to innovation, enterprise development and social impact.
Representing Kingsley Tochukwu Udeh, Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology, and the Deputy Director in the Ministry, Okoro Nkechinyere, said the Enterprise University model was consistent with the Federal Government’s efforts to promote innovation, industrialisation, domestic production and job creation.
She said modern universities must move beyond traditional teaching and research to become institutions where research is converted into innovation, innovation into commercialisation, and commercialisation into enterprises and jobs.
She said Nigeria could no longer afford a situation where research findings remained within academic publications without being translated into products and services.
Presenting the keynote address, Markus Wagner, Country Director of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) in Nigeria and ECOWAS, represented by GIZ Team Lead for the Entrepreneurship Ecosystem under its Sustainable and Inclusive Economic Development and Decent Employment (SEDIN) programme, Baba Femi Oyederin, said the initiative could help reshape entrepreneurship education in Nigeria.
Oyederin said entrepreneurship was particularly important given the significant role of micro, small and medium enterprises in Nigeria’s economy and labour market.
He said while many Nigerian universities had introduced entrepreneurship education, there was a need to move from teaching entrepreneurship as a theoretical subject to creating environments where students could actually practise it.
