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The United Sates of America says it will assist Nigeria to inculcate entrepreneurship skills in undergraduates.

Bruce Wharton,
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public Diplomacy gave this indication on
Monday in Abuja when he visited Julius Okojie, the Executive Secretary
of the National Universities Commission.

Although Mr Wharton
did not give details of this collaboration especially when and how the
assistance will be administered, he said this will form a major part of
bi-national talks between the two countries.

“It is hard to
imagine the part of our society that is more important to development
than higher education,” he said. “We need to look at making higher
education have economic value in Nigeria. The graduates of Nigerian
universities need to be assured of the highest quality in global market
place. It is healthy on the long run to make Nigerian institutions
stronger. We will help make Nigerian institutions stronger as well.”

He added that the
United States’ Fulbright programme and the educational exchange
programmes are clear testimonies to the commitment of the United States
to working with Nigeria to produce the best university graduates.

Degrees and entrepreneurship

Mr Wharton noted
that “getting a fine education is not the whole story. After you get an
education you need to get a job. United States of America has to work
with Nigeria to find ways to help create employment opportunities for
graduates. One of the things I will be interested in hearing from you
about is whether the Nigerian universities respond to the needs of the
industries in terms of degrees. Do you have a job placement programme?
Do Nigerian universities work with industries and students?”

Nigeria, he said,
has an extra ordinary well educated population with Masters and
Doctorate degrees who are not able to find jobs.

“That is something
that Nigeria and the United States may have to consider in our
bi-national framework. That will be something that will benefit
everyone.”

Akinbode Agbaoye,
the Director of Management Support Services of the NUC, who represented
the Executive Secretary acknowledged that Nigeria has not done all it
could offer in terms of making the graduates very relevant to the
industries but disclosed that efforts to improve entrepreneurship
education is being intensified by the NUC.

“We have not done enough. We have done a survey of the labour market
expectation of Nigerian Universities and we came out with a document to
make sure that entrepreneurial education is embedded in the curriculum.
It is observed that Nigerian graduates are good in theories but are not
as good in practice. The National Universities Commission has taken
measures in establishing these centres with a view to addressing issues
of job creation, poverty reduction and provision of sustainable
employment which should engender an increase in the average income
level per household in Nigeria and as well improve the international
image of Nigeria through enhancing the competitiveness of the economy.”