December 06, 2021

Sub-Saharan Africa: Receives Most World Bank’s Assistance for Higher Education

T The 11th virtual annual conference of the African Network for Internationalization of Education (ANIE) Conference that took place on 25th – 26th November, 2021, gave us a run-down of the World Bank’s global assistance for higher education. Out of the total US$9.8bn, the Sub-Saharan Africa region received a total of US$3.8bn since 2015. The region remains the biggest recipient of World Bank’s assistance for higher education in the world, followed by South Asia with US$2.3bn, the Latin America and Caribbean region third with US$1.6bn.

Roberta Malee Basset, World Bank’s global lead for Tertiary Education, told at the ANIE Conference that the region received a total of $3.8bn towards tertiary education. A large chunk of it went to finance a number of projects of African Centres of Excellence. These centres help researchers in Africa with funds required to continue their research and innovations.

…the region received a total of $3.8bn towards tertiary education. A large chunk of it went to finance a number of projects of African Centres of Excellence.

“The total World Bank portfolio for tertiary education during this period is just around $9.8bn since 2015, the Africa region accounts for 40% of that total portfolio and these figures are expected to keep growing in the future,” disclosed Roberta Malee Basset. However, it was also noted that Africa saw only 9.4% tertiary education enrolment (as at 2018), which puts the region at the lowest in the world. The reason for the low number could be the concerned government’s low spending on higher education.

Basset also draws focus on the Covid-19 pandemic and its effect on the education sector in Africa. “Universities switched to remote learning, but low levels of connectivity were an obstacle. Remote learning was and remains challenging because only 0.44% had access to a fixed broadband and 25% to the internet,” shared Basset. “The crisis exposed the importance of investing in digital skills to build resilience and create job opportunities for the 21st century,” she added. The theme for the 11th ANIE Conference was ‘Rising up from the COVID 19 Pandemic: African Universities and the new dynamics in internationalization’.

Posted in News and tagged Africa, African Universities, News, Higher Education, ANIE Conference, World Bank
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