Commencement of Africa Education Trust Fund Organizing Committee

,

The Association of African Universities (AAU), the Pan-African Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PACCI) and the African Private Sector (APSS) have inaugurated a committee to establish an African Education Trust Fund (AETF). The Committee comprises eminent African scholars, business executives, some representatives of African institutions, an Indian former Vice-Chancellor of an East African university, and two senior advisors.

The Association of African Universities (AAU), Africa’s apex higher education body with a membership of over 400 universities across the continent, and the Pan African Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PACCI) representing the collective interest of Chambers of Commerce and Industry and the business community in Africa, signed a Strategic Partnership Agreement in March 2021 to promote deeper discourse on improving academia-private sector relationships on the continent. The ultimate goal of the Agreement is to expand cooperation towards the integration of Africa through education, trade and investment under Regional Economic Communities (RECs) and the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).

In this Partnership Agreement, the Parties agreed to launch a special African Education Trust Fund (AETF) to raise funds to develop and strengthen a resilient African education system that produces the right skills set required to transform the continent into an economic powerhouse through human capacity development, academic scholarships, development of responsive curricula in all disciplines and infrastructural development in African higher education and technical and vocational education and training (TVET) systems.