Over the years, members of the academia—students and lecturers alike—have bewailed the dilapidating infrastructure and obsolete facilities in Nigerian varsities. While some students attribute their poor performance to the infrastructural deficits, lecturers continue to point out that the learning environment is not to be neglected, if students are expected to get the best of their learning experience.
In response to these growing concerns, the Central Bank of Nigeria commenced its capacity building program with an objective of installing modern infrastructures in universities across the nation. The pilot scheme of this program kicked off in first-generation universities such as the University of Ibadan, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, University of Lagos, and University of Nigeria, Nsukka. By the end of the pilot scheme, the program had seen the installation of structures such as administrative blocks, health centres, lecture halls, and science laboratories.
Following the successful execution of the pilot scheme, the program has been scaled up to include other major projects. Notable among them, is the CBN-CENEF (Central Bank Centres for Economics and Finance). This is a sub-sector educational intervention with an aim to train highly qualified professionals in fields such as Economics, Finance, and Business Administration.
Currently, nine universities have been selected to serve as participating universities. These universities are located in Zaria, Nsukka, Ibadan, Lagos, Port Harcourt, Jos, Kano, Maiduguri and one other. The participating universities were carefully selected to spread impact across all the geo-political zones of Nigeria.
While, these projects have been completed in Zaria (Ahmadu Bello University), Ibadan (University of Ibadan), and Nsukka (University of Nigeria), the other six are underway. In order to see to the completion of the projects across the nine varsities, the Central Bank of Nigeria has made a commitment to the tune of 63bn Naira. According to the Central Bank Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, each of the structure is estimated to cost at least 7bn Naira.
