Nigeria Federal Science & Technical Education at Post-Basic Levels (STEPB)

closed

This Project Appraisal Document (PAD) proposes financing for Science and Technology Education at the Post-Basic (STEPB) level in selected federal institutions in Nigeria. The project will support capacity enhancement in post-basic science and technology (S&T) education. Its design benefits from a lengthy and inclusive participatory process in which workshops, formal and informal stakeholder dialogues and a year's worth of analytic work preceded its formulation. However, this project represents a modest investment in comparison to the needs and size of Nigeria's entire post-basic education sub-sector, even for its S&T components. Also, since Nigeria's democratic government emerged in 1999 the post-basic education sub-sector has become more under pressure from increasing demand for better access and quality. There is also an overall consensus that Nigeria needs better middle- and higher-level S&T graduates to cater for its non-oil economic growth. For these reasons post-basic stakeholders in Nigeria opted for a project design that would provide merit-based catalytic funding to pilot innovations that render the economic and social benefits in line with the Federal Government's comprehensive poverty reduction strategy, known as the National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS).