The Federal Government will on Monday, July 28, 2025, launch Nigeria’s Diaspora BRIDGE platform, a digital hub designed to connect diaspora-based Nigerian academics with universities and research institutions within the country.
Announcing the development on Wednesday, July 23, the Ministry’s Director of Press and Public Relations, Boriowo Folasade, described the programme as a move to strengthen Nigeria’s engagement with its academics in diaspora.
According to Folasade, the initiative, spearheaded by the Federal Ministry of Education, aims to improve Nigeria’s research, bolster institutional capacity, and foster high-impact academic collaboration.
The launch will take place at the State House, Abuja, and will be presided over by Vice President Kashim Shettima and Minister of Education, Dr. Maruf Olatunji Alausa.
What Is Nigeria’s Diaspora BRIDGE?
Short for Bridging Research, Innovation, Development, and Global Engagement, Diaspora BRIDGE is a digital platform that allows Nigerian experts living abroad to register their academic or professional specialisations and connect with tertiary institutions back home.
The platform, according to Folasade, will serve as a two-way channel: while diaspora professionals can showcase their fields of expertise, local institutions, including universities, polytechnics, colleges of education, and research institutes can signal areas of need and initiate structured partnerships.
“The Diaspora BRIDGE is a strategic digital initiative designed to connect Nigerian professionals and academics in the diaspora with tertiary education and research institutions across the country,” the statement read.
What This Means
The Ministry says Diaspora BRIDGE will feature a range of integrated tools for virtual collaboration, academic matching, project tracking, and performance monitoring, positioning it as more than a contact database, but a partnership engine.
The platform will also interface with government systems like the Tertiary Education Research Applications System (TERAS) to ensure policy alignment, transparency, and traceable impact.
This, according to the Ministry, means activities on Diaspora BRIDGE will not exist in isolation, but be plugged into broader national education and innovation goals.
Access and Registration
The platform will go live after the official unveiling, with full access and registration details available on its website here. Stakeholders, including university administrators, research directors, and diaspora organisations, are encouraged to engage with the platform actively.
Members of the public will be able to follow the live-streamed launch event on select national TV stations and online platforms.
The Ministry has also called on academic leaders across Nigeria to prepare their institutions to fully integrate with the system, ensuring they have capacity to initiate and manage diaspora partnerships once the platform goes live.
A Growing Trend
The scale of Africa’s diaspora talent pool is immense. According to the African Union, over 70,000 skilled professionals leave the continent every year.
A 2023 study by the World Bank found that 43% of Nigerian academics working overseas expressed interest in contributing to institutions back home, if a clear framework existed. Nigeria’s Diaspora BRIDGE, according to experts, could unlock this potential.
Nigeria is not alone in its effort to tap into its diaspora brainpower. South Africa was one of the first countries to pioneer this approach. Its South African Network of Skills Abroad (SANSA) connects South Africans in the diaspora with local projects.
Ethiopia’s Connecting Diaspora for Development (CD4D) program also connects diaspora experts with institutions in Ethiopia to promote knowledge transfer and collaboration. And Ghana’s Diaspora Affairs Office has also championed knowledge-sharing missions.
Diaspora BRIDGE arrives at a time when Nigeria is under pressure to reform its education sector. Experts believe the platform could help narrow the gap between Nigerian institutions and their counterparts in other countries.
Talking Points
The launch of Nigeria’s Diaspora BRIDGE is a welcome step toward reversing decades of brain drain by creating a structured pathway for diaspora experts to contribute meaningfully to national development.
By offering tools for virtual collaboration, academic matching, and project tracking, the platform addresses a longstanding gap in how Nigerian institutions engage with professionals abroad.
At Techparley, we believe digital platforms like Diaspora BRIDGE can transform higher education by facilitating targeted, demand-driven partnerships between universities and the diaspora.
This initiative has the potential to increase Nigeria’s research output, modernise curricula, and close critical knowledge gaps in STEM, healthcare, agriculture, and policy research.
However, success will depend on transparency, and ease of access for users at home and abroad. If executed well, Nigeria’s Diaspora BRIDGE could become a benchmark for harnessing diaspora expertise to fuel innovation, strengthen institutions, and advance long-term development goals.
