The Vision of Herbert Wigwe: Nigeria’s Leading Bank Chairman Launching New Private University

At the helm of Nigeria’s largest bank in terms of assets, Herbert Wigwe is preparing to launch a private university. “To train the next leaders of the banking sector, we need them to offer adapted teaching,” confides the Nigerian businessman to our colleagues at Bloomberg.

Where is Dangote?

Committed to investing $500 million over five years for his hybrid university, Hebert Wigwe va also take on the role of professor to supervise students, and will use his address book to recruit the country’s greatest entrepreneurs, like the tycoon Nigerian Aliko Dangote, for masterclasses. His goal ? “Developing the skills needed for the finance and technology sectors.”

To provide management, science, engineering and technology courses of information and creative arts, the Nigerian banker plans to recruit 30% of its teaching staff from the United Kingdom and the United States. At the head of the France-Nigeria investment club, Hebert Wigwe wish, in fact, drawing inspiration from the models in place in American and British universities.

Annual fees of $4,171

“I don’t need a hundred years or billions of dollars to achieve the same quality of education found in these schools. India produces a large number of developers from a single building,” says co-founder of giant Access Bank in an interview. While 1,400 students are expected for the next school year, 10,000 students are hoped for within five years.

In Nigeria, investments in the sector of education is becoming scarce, at a time when the country is going through a stifling economic crisis. Convinced that “the real contribution of education goes beyond money because it transforms individuals et countries”, Herbert Wigwe, for his part, set the tuition fees at around $12,500 (3.5 million naira), or almost $4,171 par an.