Why Support NMI?

1. NMI and its Centers of Excellence, the universities of science and technology affiliated to it in Africa, are young institutions. They experience growing pains and financial stress just like all young institutions.

2. Tuition revenues are severely limited because experience has shown that the students who qualify for admission in science and technology come from poor families who cannot afford to pay. Students whose families can pay study non science-related fields and many of them go overseas. Most students therefore have so far depended on need-based aid from NMII.

3. NMI has responded by obtaining grants from international institutions such as the African Development Bank, the African Capacity Building Foundation and the World Bank. It has also obtained grants from the private. Such schemes however do not and cannot satisfy all the needs of NMI’s affiliated institutions.

4. Even for well-established and well-endowed universities like Harvard and Stanford, tuition does cover all the costs of educating students. For Harvard for instance, tuition covers only about 21% of the needs, with endowment income providing about 36%.

5. NMI’s flagship university is private and therefore has no support from any government.

6. NMI’s mission spans the whole of Africa and it puts special emphasis on the promotion of young women in science and technology.

7. Finally, helping bridge the gap in science and technology between Africa and the rest of the world will lead to more economic development, there leading to an expanding market for US products, including for the more advanced technological ones.