The AVU began in 1997 as a project of the World Bank and later developed into an autonomous institution after it was handed over to African governments in 2003.
[6] Furthermore, the AVU initiative desired to equip SSA students with the skills they would need to compete in the new professional jobs emerging on the continent—especially in the technical industries.
[6] The initiative hoped that the AVU could provide access to academic databases, high-quality professors, and technical curricula to close the gap between African country's economies and that of the rest of the world.
[6] As of 2013, the program had more than 40,000 graduates in 27 Sub-Saharan countries and planned to expand to phone-based content in 2015 due to the prevalence of smartphones on the continent.
[10] This flow of knowledge moves in a one-way direction from the West to the East, leaving African countries with little say in the curriculum.