New Focus on Nigeria

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About one Sub-Saharan individual out of four lives in Nigeria. Since 2016, the most populated country in Africa is also the country that produces the most wealth on the continent, and 26th worldwide. While the country registered more than 40 million inhabitants at its independence in 1960, the population new reaches 217 million (including 60% under 24 years old) and this figure should almost double in 2050, turning the country into the 3rd most populated in the world[1]. Nigeria definitely has economic assets and a leading position in Sub-Saharan Africa in many fields (oil industry, banking, digital sector, cinema, etc.). Since its independence in 1960, Nigerian higher education gained about 2 million students, i.e. the most significant cohort in the continent. Because of this number, the desire for international studies of part of the population, and many scholarship systems in host countries and Nigeria, the country has significant weight, with more than 70,000 mobile students in global mobility.

[1] UNO demographic projection.

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The internationalisation of Nigerian higher education

According to Unesco, about 12% of Nigerians aged 18 to 22 are enrolled in higher education (2018 data). Access to higher education is conditional on passing the highly selective “Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination” at the end of secondary studies. The federal government is responsible for 314 public institutions, while private higher education is growing strongly.

Nigerian students form the largest contingent of mobile students in Sub-Saharan Africa, with 71,700 mobile students in 2020. In total, Nigerians represent 17% of the 430,000 mobile sub-Saharan students.

Many mobile Nigerian students tend to move far away: almost three quarters of them are enrolled in Europe or the Americas (43% and 30% respectively). Mobility to sub-Saharan Africa, the third most popular destination, concerns only 12% of students, while 12% go to Asia-Oceania and 3% to North Africa or the Middle East.

Anglo-Saxon countries, but also Malaysia and Germany have so far been favoured by Nigerian students on mobility, notably because of the language, but there is a rapid development of this mobility in many other countries, including France.

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Higher education and scientific cooperation between France and Nigeria

In 2021-2022, France hosted 1019 Nigerian students, 44% of whom were women. This represents an increase of 96% in five years. At university, 40% of Nigerian students are enrolled in a Licence course, 44% in Master course and 16% in Doctorate course. With nearly 100 PhD students enrolled at the university, the number of PhD students has quadrupled in five years (+313%). At university, the disciplines studied are mainly science (42%), literature, languages, humanities and social sciences (30%), economics (18%) and law or political science (8%).

Several projects such as the scholarship programmes set up in cooperation with France’s Nigerian partners, notably the “Petroleum Technology Development Fund”, and the European Union’s “Erasmus+” programme contribute to the development of student mobility and academic exchanges.

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Campus France and the promotion of studies in France

Every year, Agence Campus France, in partnership with the French Embassy and Campus France, organises the Study Tour Nigeria, an event that is now a must in the two major cities (Abuja and Lagos) at the institutional and student level. No less than 18 French higher education institutions participated in the last edition last November. In total, in 2022, Campus France Nigeria organised 21 webinars, 10 fairs and 13 school visits.

The France Alumni Nigeria platform, created in 2016, now has 440 members.