Afe Babalola donates £10m to Kings College London to help establish an African educational centre

NIGERIAN philanthropist and legal luminary Chief Afe Babalola has donated a sum of £10m to the UK's Kings College in London to enable it establish the Afe Babalola African Centre for Transnational Education.

Chief Babalola, 93, has a long track record of backing educational establishments as in 2001, he was appointed as the pro-chancellor of the University of Lagos by Nigeria's former president Olusegun Obasanjo and in 2009, he established Afe Babalola University Ado Ekiti. This new centre being planned in London will enable young Africans to access education and opportunities which they would otherwise not be able to have.

Apparently, the vision for the centre is based on using the power of education to empower and enable Africa’s talented young people to make meaningful contributions to their communities and the world. This centre will offer blended and online programmes, ensuring access to students who have had their journey to higher education disrupted by conflict, displacement, or other transitions.

It will also offer post-graduate level modules which can be brought together to create professionally recognised qualifications from diplomas to Masters degrees programmes. Chief Babalola’s donation will also provide scholarships alongside other funding partners to support bright students who would not otherwise be able to access these programmes, generating valuable knowledge about the nature and impact of transnational education on Africa’s development.

A bespoke programme for Africa will be developed in partnership with the University of London and an alliance of leading African universities. Modules will focus on topics that give talented young people society-relevant knowledge and skills that can improve their own lives, their communities and their futures such as law, health, engineering, peace and security and leadership.

This vision is inspired by Chief Babalola’s own experiences of growing up without easy access to high quality education and benefitting from the transformative power of remote learning. This allowed him to study from his home in Nigeria and to graduate with degrees in Economics and Law from the University of London.

A key example of this, is the African Leadership Centre, which was established at King’s and in Kenya, in collaboration with the University of Nairobi, to develop a new community of African leaders, generating cutting-edge knowledge for peace, security and development in Africa. Another is the University of London’s long-standing relationship with Nigeria’s National Universities Commission, which co-delivers annual symposia for higher education leaders.

The University of London pioneered distance learning in the 19th century and today provides online and distance education programmes to 45,000 learners studying in their home countries around the world. Chief Babalola was one such student, a powerful example of the life-changing opportunities that are afforded by higher education.