If I had the power, I would close most of the Universities in Nigeria down or withdraw their licenses. How can you produce productive, problem solving, innovative students if as a Uni you are not solving any problems or producing products ( only bakeries, water & print house etc).

The sun is so hot and really harsh around most places in Nigeria. A problem, yes, but an opportunity to generate electricity using Solar panels. These panels are not from another planet, the materials can be sourced and built here in Nigeria. It is not rocket science. Funding

They are teaching students Marketing, how about practicing it and run proper marketing strategy on how to source for funds, corporate partners and investors. Why just sit and wait for Government funding, of which some grants for research have been reportedly squandered by the Universities.

Maybe Tony Elumelu should dedicate one year of his TEEP (Entrepreneurship program) dedicated to Nigerian Universities competing as a company for grants to build solutions to specific problems Nigerians are facing that could easily be solved using technology. @TonyElumeluFDN

It would be lovely to see Nigerian University showcasing prototypes of locally made washing machines, tomato paste processing machines, road sweepers, traffic light systems, Solar panels and inverter systems, tricycles, modular refinery, Phone chargers, Etc

All the roads and building projects happening within any of the Universities in Nigeria should ensure a clause on the MOU forces Contractors to have some slots for Civil engineering students to work along, so they can start having work experience and better understanding.

All universities in Nigeria with approved Agricultural courses should have registered farms, with food processing machines (Cassava, tomato paste, juicers, rice millers, poultry feed processors). These independent farms can be part funded by investors, banks etc.

The VCs of the Universities need to become more creative in creating revenue generating businesses that their students can be working part time. E.g. A fashion workspace within the Uni with like 50 sewing machines, button and weaving machines too. Users can pay 10k monthly.

This workspace will have locked cupboards for users. So some students can start making their money running their fashion business while the products are sold in a shop within the school. This way the Uni can generate revenue. Imagine a UL unilag fashion brand.

Imagine UNIBEN Logistics, a company with 20 delivery motorbikes, delivery vans and trucks partnering with the Bus companies in Benin and other startups with picking up and delivering goods and luggages to customers across Benin. Employing students parttime in different functions.

Imagine UNIPORT SYSTEMS a registered digital solutions company installing their own, mostly students made Traffic light system at 1st Artillery or Garrison in Port Harcourt.

Whilst it may not be so easy, the Andela type business setup could have been replicated in some of our Universities. Instead of the bland computer science courses where students are taught Fortran and Pascal, rather invite Andela to run relevant tech programs inside the UNI.

So the UNi can provide the land, and an investor could come in to partner with them to build the lecture halls and coding labs, coworkspaces, and even new hostels. So we can have 'Andela fellows' as students within the University. A revenue sharing agreement could be reached.

Reverse Engineering should be a course in our Universities too. From the very first Keke Napep that entered Nigeria, a University should have 'dismantled' it to study the workings and how to reverse engineer it in a bid to have a locally made/assembled prototype.

I still clearly remember the Lab technician in UNIBEN (Mechanical Ela)that was using stick to point to parts of a dismembered vehicle that must have been in that same lab since the 70s. He explained quite very well with his limited teaching aid. Hopefully there's an improvement.


Culled from twitter: @mrebis

Nice, Workable ideas i must say. What we lack as a people is the impetus to go back to the basics and get our priorities right. Otherwise, we'll continue in the craze of twitter fames, cheap internet sensationalism and irrelevances like making guys like Bobrisky, Hushpuppi, Pretty Mike, Maheeda, etc seem relevant

I always thought as much good idea. I Wonder what people do in school 8am to 6pm

Four years is too long a time to spend at any tertiary institution, only to graduate and not have sufficient skills to solve any real world problems.