Former President Goodluck Jonathan has expressed dismay over the poor global ranking of African universities, describing the trend as a major obstacle to the continent’s technological and industrial advancement.
Jonathan expressed the concern while delivering a lecture titled “Harnessing Industrial Capacity for Inclusive Growth and Regional Stability in Africa” to participants of the National Defence College Course 34 in Abuja on Monday, August 24, 2026.
The former Nigerian President pointed out that Africa would not achieve meaningful technological development and industrialisation without strengthening its education system and establishing specialised universities capable of producing the skilled manpower required to drive innovation.
He lamented that no African university was ranked among the world’s top 100 universities, while only the University of Cape Town featured among the top 200, describing the situation as “terribly bad.”
“We must review and recalibrate our businesses from the primary schools to the universities. We don’t have any specialised universities in Africa. It’s terribly bad,” he said.
He urged African leaders to urgently prioritise investment in education and human capital development, stressing that the human brain had become one of the continent’s most important resources.
While citing Singapore as an example, Jonathan said that the country’s transformation from a resource-poor nation into a globally competitive economy was largely driven by deliberate investment in education and capacity building.
He also cited India’s emergence as a global force in information technology, noting that India’s success was not accidental, rather the result of deliberate investment in specialised institutions designed to develop highly skilled manpower.
“India, at independence from the British, set up institutions that prepared India for the future. They set up specialised institutions, not for everybody. They are training their best brains to control and dominate the world,” Jonathan said.
He further said that African countries must move away from an education system focused largely on producing graduates without the specialised skills required by modern economies.
He urged leaders to develop institutions that would nurture innovation, science, technology, engineering and information technology, particularly among young people.
According to him, Africa risked missing out on the current technological revolution if urgent steps were not taken to develop its human capital.
“If we miss out from industrial revolution, agri-revolution, all the revolutions, IT is now ruling the world. We cannot continue to lag behind. We must focus on young people.”
Jonathan said that the continent’s abundant natural resources would remain insufficient to guarantee prosperity unless African countries developed the capacity to convert them into high-value goods and services.
He noted that Africa had abundant natural resources, human capital and a large market, but had remained behind other regions in value addition and industrialisation.
The former President said technological development should therefore form a central component of Africa’s industrialisation strategy, stressing that the wealthiest economies were increasingly being driven by knowledge, innovation and technology rather than natural resources alone.
He urged the graduating participants of the National Defence College, whom he described as emerging strategic leaders, to champion policies that would strengthen education, technological capacity and industrial development in their respective countries.
“We cannot achieve that overnight, but with a commitment by the leaders, a determination by the citizens, we can still change the story of Africa,” he added.