PROPOSED ALPHA UNIVERSITY

Ekemini Mkpong is the president of the Nigerian Christian Institute, a 1989 graduate of Freed-Hardeman University, in Henderson,Tennessee.

In 1987 Obong Okon Mkpong, his late father started the institute and today, it has over 2000 students and more than 300 teaching and support staff.  

The Nigerian Christian Institute (NCI) provides an affordable alternative to public education in the K-12 grades and has built  world-class facilities in its 10 hectare campus in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State,(South East) Nigeria. 

Ekemini Mkpong has travelled widely and has brought to the Nigerian Christian Institute  numerous ideas and best practices from schools in Europe and Asia to give the school an international flavor. In its pursuits of excellence 100% of its high school graduates apply to and are accepted into university.

Since 2010 Ekemini Mkpong has been working to upgrade the institute into a private liberal arts university to be Alpha University.

In Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, the provision of high-quality tertiary education for its youth presents both a challenge and an opportunity.

According to the Joint Admission Matriculation Board (JAMB), in 2020, 1.9 million people registered to take its annual entrance examination into Nigerian tertiary institutions, but the 150 public/private universities only have capacity for 800,000 students. While there are thousands of private primary/secondary schools, there is a great shortage of private universities in Nigeria. This in turn has created an enormous opportunity for the private sector to step in by helping millions of Nigerian youth get access to quality education at internationally equitable standards.

NCI has for over 30 years led the way in providing excellent affordable private K-12 education and intends to expand into starting a private liberal arts university to be called Alpha University, in Uyo, Nigeria

Nigeria’s growing population as well as the government's lack of capacity has in turn led to thousands of Nigerians travelling abroad every year for tertiary educational pursuits.

The number of Nigerian doctors, professors, engineers and other professionals in the American and European workforce clearly shows that Nigerians love education and thrive in its pursuits. 

In 2018/2019, the Joint Admission Matriculation Board (JAMB) disclosed that only 585,498 candidates out of 1,662,726 (35%) that wrote matriculation exams gained admission into tertiary institutions, in Nigeria. To put this in perspective, according to the US news and world reports, the US has over 4000 universities with a population of 320 million people, while Nigeria has only 150 universities with a population of 200 million, 60% of which are under the age of 24.

According to Universities World News, Nigeria has the 3rd highest number of international students abroad. Increasingly very few of these foreign educated Nigerians will return to Africa after graduating to help develop and improve the lot of Africans besides the sending of financial remittances. We want be part of the solution to this brain drain.

We intend to start a private university in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. 

Building on our 30 plus years of experience running the largest private school in the state, we have already acquired over 50 hectares of land and have started construction on the site of what will be Alpha University.

To build a world class university requires more than the provision of lecture theaters, laboratories and other infrastructure. In building Alpha University, we plan to recruit, from Nigeria and abroad, people that share our passion for creating a world class learning community that will work together to prepare the next generation of leaders in the arts and sciences.

By drawing experts from diverse backgrounds, our plan is to provide them with the tools and facilities necessary to enable them to do research in areas of need within the African context and share their findings with all mankind, while nurturing young minds to follow in their footsteps.

We want to bring together not just the best professors and faculty, but to connect the university to other sister institutions worldwide to share and expand the worlds intellectual knowledge base while doing our part to improve and contribute to manpower development in Africa

Akwa Ibom State lies in the South Eastern part of Nigeria, with the Atlantic Coastline at its southern borders. Over 90% of its population is Christian and it is very safe from political and ethnic conflicts that plague other parts of Nigeria.

Nigeria has a population of over 200 million and is projected to grow to almost 300 million in the next 20 years, the need to give more Nigerians access to quality education and 21st century skills set is needed more than ever.

Currently there are only 4 universities in the state, 1 Federal, 1 State owned and 2 private universities and with a population of over 3 million in the state, we believe many more Akwa Ibom people that are unable to have access to higher education and those that have had to fund their travel and accommodation outside the state and sometimes internationally can avail themselves of the opportunity to study at home.

Just as Nigerian Christian Institutes (K-12) students hail from many states in the country, Alpha University stands to attract students not only from Nigeria, but neighboring West African countries.

The provision of a world class affordable, private university in Akwa Ibom State, will create opportunities for exceptional students from this part of the world to get the kind of education that hitherto they would have to travel abroad to get.

We want to attract the very  best faculty as well as provide need based scholarships, while challenging the students to strive for excellence. 

Ironically some Nigerian parents will spend a fortune to send their sons abroad for a world class education while their daughters have to cope with what the Nigerian public universities have to offer.   

With NCI’s history of training strong students and noticing their despondency when they cannot gain admission due to the lack of capacity in Nigerian universities or lack of funding to travel overseas, the need to build on what we are doing and expansion  to tertiary education became very evident. 

The loss in value of the Nigerian currency has made foreign university education very expensive for Nigerians. In 2000 the official exchange rate for the Nigerian naira was 85 naira to 1 US dollar, and many were able to finance their foreign university education at these rates of exchange; fast forward to 2010 and the exchange rate dropped to 250 naira to 1 US Dollar making it difficult to earn in naira and pay foreign school tuition for most Nigerians. Today it is 400 naira to 1 US dollar. 

We have built an affordable alternative to public education in the K-12 grades. This school session we have over 2000 students registered and a staff strength of 300 teachers and supporting staff. 

 Our history motivates us to build on what was started 35 years ago and continue to make a difference in the lives of our people.

I am from Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria and every year in my capacity as an advisor to student's I get to know and work with many of the final year students from our high school, all of whom plan on attending a university. In that capacity it is most disheartening to see top students, with exceptional scores in their exams, have difficulties gaining admission into universities to study courses of their choice.

Due to the high number of applicants and very few spots available for courses like Medicine, Engineering and Law: many students are forced to study whatever course is available just to get out of the house. It is not unusual for a student to study, for example Biochemistry, for years in a Nigerian University while they keep taking the matriculation exam to start out again as a freshman medical student when granted admission.

Given the state of the world, with pandemics, currency devaluation, etc, it becomes more evident that there is a strong need to provide a training environment that is oriented towards producing graduates with specific skills sets for future opportunities in Nigeria, across the continent and around the world..

In 1971, my father Obong Okon Mkpong, attended an American university and returned in 1973 with a masters degree in educational administration.

After 14 years of working for the government as a school principal he retired and started the Nigerian Christian Institute. 

In 1985 I also attended an American university and returned in 1992, to join the Nigerian Christian Institute(NCI)  as Director of Institutional Development. In that position I was instrumental in developing and sourcing funding for all infrastructural projects on campus. We built a world class campus with a 2000 seater auditorium, a world class gymnasium, a student center as well as dormitories and classrooms.

The NCI has grown from 21 students in 1985 to over 2000 students in 2020. Our family is made up of educators  who have worked both in secondary and tertiary education and share in the passion of creating strong educational spaces that are globally superior and beneficial to our community, locally and abroad. This passion has been instrumental in sustaining the excellence of the work done at NCI.  Many in our family that are professors abroad have indicated interest in joining us in this endeavour and are attracting others that share our passion, to join us

I also have a personal relationship with 2 serving American University presidents whom I knew while in College in the 8o's. President David Shannon of Freed-hardeman University and President Scott McDowell of Lubbock Christian University. Both of which are eager to foster a relationship between our institute.

With our students graduating secondary school and dealing with lack of capacity, we traveled overseas to build relationships with universities and look at how we  could best serve our students.  We were able to secure some financial assistance for our students, but had a problem with admissions for our students because of the standardized tests required by many American universities. The only testing centers for ACT were in Lagos or Abuja, which are geographically too far for NCI students to travel easily. I worked to convince the ACT to send its representatives to the NCI for inspection and accreditation to administer the ACT exam.  We are the only such center in the state. Last year 2 of our students had 33 and 32 composite scores.

Also, thirty years ago, as a junior in college, I had a summer job, selling books door to door, on straight commission. Having to knock on 60+ doors everyday with less than 2 persons buying taught me how to deal with rejection. I persevered and after 12 grueling weeks I got a check for $6,000 and of course went back the next summer, this time as a student manager, having recruited a team of 15.

It is fair to say that Africa was least prepared to deal with the current Covid-19 pandemic. At the Nigerian Christian Institute, once we got wind of the impending lockdown, we arranged for extended school days, and even came to school on Saturdays to complete the coursework and assessment needed, thanks to our wonderful staff and faculty. Their pragmatism helped us complete the second term school work before the shutdown. After one month of lockdown, we started staff training in May focusing on online content delivery and have just concluded the first 6 weeks of online learning in all our grades by teachers and students who had never used a computer for interactive e-learning and evaluation. This required having all hands on deck, providing technology and training to faculty, staff and students to adapt to the new environment; which has been a challenging opportunity.   In spite of all the hardships and difficulties involved in working in sub-saharan Africa I believe the ability of our people to quickly adapt and thrive in whatever conditions they find themselves is one of their greatest assets and playing a part in shaping our future gives me great joy.