Press release

Vaccine Queen opens the first of 100 tech universities across West Africa

By Lauren Beukes

ACCRA: With the launch of the debut OkC01 University in Ghana’s capital today, Nigerian-Australian vaccine magnate, Dylan Okereke-Clifford joins the ranks of billionaire techpreneurs investing in the continent.

OkC01 is the first of a hundred tertiary education institutions with a focus on technology and engineering and a climate-heavy syllabus planned to expand across participating countries including Nigeria, Liberia, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Senegal and Sierra Leone.

Known affectionately as the Vaccine Queen of Lagos, pharmaceutical heir Okereke-Clifford made her fortune post-Covid in manufacturing and distributing vaccines throughout Africa, in partnership with China’s HealthEEE.

HealthEEE is proud to continue its partnership with Okereke-Clifford as one of OkC’s elite Future Employer partners, who will not only help develop the cutting-edge syllabus, but also have first pick of graduates, guaranteeing 40 per cent employment and ensuring the continent’s top minds get the best possible global opportunities they deserve. Other Future Employer partners include the likes of Alibaba, Pfizer and HSBC.

At the ribbon-cutting ceremony in Accra today, Okereke-Clifford said, “I’m thrilled to be able to open new possibilities to West Africans, to expand our minds and our futures. I look forward to seeing OkC graduates taking their rightful places in the global economy and I hope they too will find interesting ways to change the world.”

The OkC universities are free to attend and Okereke-Clifford’s brand-new ReallyReal™ VR initiative hopes to allow more students to attend virtually from wherever they are on the continent.

OkC01 campus opens in the defunct and neglected Accra Central Library, redesigned and expanded by British starchitect Thomas Heatherwick. “This is another way the private sector is able to step up where government fails,” Okereke-Clifford says, adding that the library lives on in virtual reality, and all the books have been digitized. Her company will be distributing ReallyReal™ headsets to all Accra residents to ensure they continue to have free access to all the books.

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