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The African Development Bank has approved an eight-year $40 million corporate loan to the Afe Babalola University (ABUAD), Ado Ekiti, Ekiti State. The AfDB financing will fund part of ABUAD’s expansion plan, which is geared towards expanding access to high-quality education to over 12,000 students per year, according to a statement released on Wednesday.

“Education is one of the booming private sector engagements in Africa at this time. The Bank’s support to the sector will help leverage quality education, especially in science and technology,” said Frannie Léautier, AfDB’s Senior Vice-President. “The Bank will be exploring other avenues and scholarships in support of education in the disciplines critical to Africa’s development.”

ABUAD operates in Nigeria’s deficient university education sector, which consists of 59 private universities out of 138 universities. In 2014, only 30 percent of eligible secondary school applicants gained admission to Nigerian universities due mainly to capacity constraints. As a result, over one million young Nigerians are prevented from gaining admission to a tertiary institution each year. Besides the challenges in gaining admissions, the quality of the curriculum offered by most universities in Nigeria has not produced market-ready graduates as over 75 percent of Nigerian young graduates are not fully employed.

ABUAD’s expansion plan consists of construction of new facilities – including a 400-bed teaching hospital, an industrial research park, a 1.1MW small hydro power installation, and upgrading the university’s administrative and governance structures.

During the lifespan of the loan, ABUAD’s students capacity is expected to double from the current 6,500 students to over 12,000 students. Over 500 students will also receive full/partial scholarships and other forms of financial aid while 2,400 farmers will benefit from the university’s farmers training programmes. The project will create 250 new staff positions and about 1,000 temporary jobs across construction, supplies, and consulting.

Established in 2010, ABUAD is a private non-profit institution. The university is comprised of five colleges for undergraduates –engineering, law, medicine and health science, science, and social and management sciences – and a postgraduate school. All academic programmes of the university have been fully accredited by the National University Commission and relevant professional bodies.