1 Million Scholarships for African Youths by 2020-Copied

1 Million Scholarships for African Youths by 2020

Challenge

The fundamental idea is that of providing scholarships for the impoverished and disenfranchised youths (male and female) who are currently being drawn into extremist violent groups like Boko Haram, Shabaab, Taliban, ISIS and Abu Sayyaaf, etc., and making them a part of tangible positive change in the continent and in the course of world history.

Status

At the beginning of 2012, the world population surpassed 7 billion with 1.1 billion people living in Africa. Countries in sub-Saharan Africa have the youngest proportion of population in the world with over 70% of the region’s population aged below 30.
(Source: The World’s Youngest Populations, Euromonitor International, 2012)
Today, only 6% of sub-Saharan youth are enrolled in higher education institutions compared to the global average of 26%.

Project

The 1 Million Scholarships Project begins with only 100 students from each of 10 English Speaking African countries at $560 per student for a 4 year Bachelors degree program:

Courses

Students can choose from Bachelor programs in Education, Psychology, Islamic Banking and Finance, Information Technology, Business Administration, Islamic Studies or Arabic. All acquired knowledge courses are taught from an Islamic moral perspective in order for students to graduate upstanding honest citizens of their various countries, capable of instituting real change in their future direction. Please note that by 2018 we should also be offering Bachelor degrees also in Mass Communications, Public Health, and Agricultural Economics.

Capacity

Note that the Islamic Online University is currently able to handle 2 Million students at one time. However, the project would be rolled out in stages, in order for the local on-the-ground infrastructure to be gradually developed to handle annually increasing numbers.

The Plan

In 2018, each of the ten countries would have 1,000 scholarships, in 2019 each would have 10,000 students, and by 2020 each would have 100,000 bringing us to 1+ Million.

The Cost

1 Million Scholarships For 10 English Speaking African Countries (Gambia, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon, Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Somalia, South Sudan)

We look forward to a favorable response of wholehearted support for our dream which we have already launched in the Gambia this year, and are about to launch in Sierra Leone, Ghana, Nigeria and Somalia, al hamdu lillaah.

Realities

There are however challenges in Africa where most students do not have computers, electricity is erratic, and the internet is very expensive. That problem will be solved by setting up learning centers with computer labs, and internet connectivity in collaboration with the governments, NGOs, and other charitable organizations.