Jesuit Higher Education at the Margins: E-Commerce Certificate Program for Underserved Communities in Lagos, Nigeria
Original content from: John-Okoria Ibhakewanlan SJ, Provincial Delegate for Tertiary Education, North-West Africa
On the 31st of July 2023, the North-West Africa Province (ANW) of the Society of Jesus signed an MoU with the Jesuit Worldwide Learning (JWL) for higher education at the margins. Jesuits and their collaborators reached out to many underprivileged youth in Lagos, urban poor, and on the 25th of September launched JWL’s certificate in E-Commerce for them. Despite the dire socio-economic background and circumstances of the several students enrolled, two of them were able to complete the course. The two girls graduated with very good grades.
During his first ever trip to Nigeria, Fr. Joseph Christie SJ, visiting the Province as Secretary for Jesuit Higher Education from the Jesuit General Curia in Rome, congratulated the two students. Incidentally, Fr. Christie is the Chair of the JWL Global Advisory Board. He was pleased to see Alero Eyituoyo-Uwejeyan and Sekinat Idris awarded the Professional Certificate in E-commerce from St. Joseph College, Bangalore, India. Both students met the required 100 hours of online learning, 120 hours of outside class work, 200 hours of class instruction and 220 hours of project work. The course contents learnt through the program include E-commerce basic concepts, practice of Accounting and Entrepreneurship.
On the 6th of August 2024, the e-commerce certificate was handed to the graduating students by Fr. Joseph Christie at the St. Ignatius Chapel in Lagos.
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