LEICESTER, England, Wednesday, December 8th 2010 [ME NewsWire]:
(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Books and academic journals worth more than £1 million have been donated to universities and polytechnics across Africa, thanks to the support of Nigerian academics at De Montfort University (DMU) in Leicester, UK.
Dr Kamil Omoteso, a Senior Lecturer in Accounting at DMU, helped set up the book donation scheme in 2008 at the university as one of the activities of the Educational Support Initiative for Africa (ESIfA) – a project of the Centre for African Resources Research and Development (CARRD – www.carrd.net).
Dr Omoteso leads DMU’s project team, which also includes Dr Ismail Adelopo from the university’s Business School.
To date, the initiative has been able to donate 50,000 books and journals worth more than £1 million at second-hand value, of which it is estimated £250,000 has come from DMU alone. With the help of Dr Omoteso’s project team, these books have been collected, packaged and shipped to a number of educational institutions in Nigeria, Ghana, and Somalia, to name but a few.
Dr Omoteso said: “A quarter of the ESIfA’s donation has been sourced from DMU through its library and staff members across all the faculties, who no longer have any need for older editions of academic books.
“It seemed like such a waste to simply throw them away, when they could be of benefit to African institutions that don’t have easy access to such resources. It is very expensive for them to buy in new books, so our scheme aims to provide a more cost-friendly way to help enhance the quality of teaching and learning in a continent which is continually experiencing economic difficulties.”
He added: “Education is key to helping developing countries, and through the support of ESIfA we aim to do what we can to help secure a good future for Africa’s younger generation.”
Other partners and benefactors include Cambridge University Press, The Royal Institute of Philosophy, The Company of Biologists, the University of London, MRC Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, and the American Political Science Association.
The next shipment to institutions in Nigeria is planned for January 2011.
For media enquiries, please contact:
DMU Press Office
Nikki Godwin
+44 (0)116 207 8099
news@dmu.ac.uk
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