New campus in Nigeria expands IIT footprint to West Africa

New campus in Nigeria expands IIT footprint to West Africa

India is expanding its footprint in Africa’s higher education sector, setting up a highly regarded Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) campus in West Africa, specifically in Nigeria, as part of IITs’ efforts to expand their global presence and promote international collaboration in education. This will be the second IIT branch on the African continent after IIT Madras Zanzibar opened in 2023.

Nigerian Minister of Education Dr Maruf Tunji Alausa confirmed the establishment of the new branch campus on 22 October after a meeting in Abuja with Indian High Commissioner Abhishek Singh.

Alausa announced that a joint technical working group would plan for the new campus to be set up at the Federal Government Academy (FGA) in Suleja, known for its robust academic programme for gifted students.

Science and technology hub

The location is seen as having the potential to become a regional hub for science and technology.

The Nigerian Federal Ministry of Education said on social media platform X the academy will be upgraded into a “centre of excellence” with Indian support.

Mary Millicent Nnawuogo, principal of FGA Suleja, said in a statement the IIT campus will provide “exceptional opportunities” for talented Nigerian students to receive world-standard education and compete on a global scale in innovation and technology.

For Nigeria, the IIT campus is part of a larger plan to provide top quality education and promote technological innovation. Alausa described the project as a crucial step in President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s “Renewed Hope Agenda”, which emphasises developing human resources.

Singh said: “The Nigeria campus will follow the successful model of IIT Madras in Zanzibar, where India provides academic leadership and the host country offers infrastructure.”

The IIT Nigeria campus will offer undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in engineering, technology and research with Indian academic expertise, faculty, and a curriculum devised by the IIT. The first group of students is expected to start classes in 2026.

Dr Abhishek Mishra, associate fellow at the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses, a New Delhi think-tank, said the initiative marked “a major step” in India’s international education outreach.

“The establishment of the IIT campus in Nigeria will pioneer interdisciplinary education and innovation-led learning in Africa. It will help to connect India’s technological excellence with Africa’s emerging innovation landscape to co-create scalable and sustainable solutions that drive growth and inclusivity,” he told University World News.

He noted that with its own large higher education sector India was “well-placed to understand and provide solutions [to challenges] that persist in Africa’s higher education sector”.

New markets

Mishra added that the decision to open an IIT campus in Nigeria showed that India’s traditional focus on eastern and southern Africa due to the presence of a large Indian diaspora in those regions was now spreading to western Africa as the Indian private sector seeks newer markets.

In addition to the IIT Madras Zanzibar campus in Tanzania, IIT Delhi’s Abu Dhabi campus began operations in 2024. India is also exploring future IIT campuses in Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Thailand, and the UK, according to recent media reports.

Dr Pushkar, director and chief executive of the International Centre Goa, a conference and seminar centre, and a frequent commentator on India’s higher education, said the IITs could not rely on reputation alone for success in Africa.

According to Pushkar, “much depends on not just how much prestige the IIT brand has in that country [Nigeria] but also on its competitors, the size of the college-going population and so on. The rest probably comes after.”

One driver of international branch campuses, particularly for Western university campuses in Asia and other areas, is to attract more foreign students to their home campuses. But Pushkar did not think more African students will choose India for higher studies with the opening of the new IIT campus.

“I think it is fair to say that the data on African or other international students coming to India over the past 10-20 years gives a better indication of whether more will come in the coming years. The numbers have been quite flat, as I recall. Offshore campuses are unlikely to affect student mobility to India,” Pushkar said.

Mishra said while it is expected that the course design, syllabus and quality of knowledge imparted at the IIT Nigeria campus will be of the highest standard, India must ensure regular consultation with its key African stakeholders, such as university management, academy boards and, most importantly, the students, to receive continuous feedback, if the Nigeria campus is to be a success.