Egyptian cultural centers in Africa to be upgraded

CAIRO – 9 August 2020: Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research Khaled Abdel Ghaffar presented Sunday to Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouli an overview of the status of the Egyptian cultural centers across Africa as the latter wants an upgrade plan for the establishments.

The initiative is a step forward to strengthen the relations between Egypt and the African states. There is a cultural center in each of Morocco, Mauritania, and Nigeria. The center in the Moroccan capital, Rabat, was founded in 1957 after the country got its independence from the French colonization in 1956. The center was established to symbolize Egypt's support to the struggle against colonization. The establishment contains a valuable library having books on humanities, applied sciences, religious sciences, law, and languages as well as Egyptian movies, soap operas, and documentaries. That is in addition to a library for the blind.

The Egyptian cultural center in Mauritania's Nouakchott was launched in 1964 to be the oldest in the country upon the request of its late President Al Mokhtar Weld Dadah in order to save the Arab identity of the country that got influenced by the colonization. The center's library consists of more than 20,000 in various fields.

The Egyptian cultural center in Nigeria had been first established in Lagos before it was moved to Kano. As its library has hundreds of Arabic-language books and encyclopedias, the turnout of school students and individuals studying Arabic language is quite high.  

The new headquarters spanning over 900 square meters is a gift from the Nigerian state to Egypt. In a similar context, Egypt launched in the country "Study in Egypt" initiatives aimed at attracting Nigerian students to study in Egyptian universities. It is noted that many Nigerian students seek to earn their high degrees abroad because of the large size of the population compared to the number of universities in the country.

Nigeria has a total of 174 universities while Egypt has 41. The populations of Nigeria and Egypt are 206 million and 102 million.