Niger, one of the world’s poorest and least developed countries, is not really where you would expect to find one of the world’s leading international universities. But think again.

More than 3,300 students from 23 countries on the African continent have been studying at the Islamic University in Niger since it opened in the landlocked West African nation in 1986. 

And since its female campus, the $65-million Niamey University Complex for Girls, opened in 2021, 3,000 female students from around the continent study there. There is accommodation for about 1,500 female students on campus.

They can study in five different colleges – Mass Communication, Management and Computer Science, Sharia, Nursing and Arabic Language. More than 600 professionals graduate each year.

A solar plant supplies the needed power for operation reducing the monthly electricity bills and maintaining a nearly green building concept.

The project was funded by the Islamic Development Bank, which administers the resources of the King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Program for Charity Works, and officially inaugurated by Niger’s president, Mahamadou Issoufou, on March 29, 2021.

It aspires to become one of the leading research and educational institutions for people in West Africa as well as the whole continent, by promoting a new generation of students, technically and morally equipped to face the world’s future challenges.

It promotes womens’ role in socio-economic development and their contribution to human development, while preserving their Islamic values, by enhancing the quality of higher education for women and linking it with the job market.

Cover image: Tech. Sgt. Chance Babin, Wikimedia.