With a population of more than 200 million, Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa. It has about 123 universities (public and privately owned) with most offering undergraduate and graduate courses in biochemistry and molecular biology. The teaching of biochemistry in Nigeria started in the country's pioneer university, in 1967. Due to low budgetary allocation to the education sector, teaching online has not been adopted and face‐to‐face instruction has been the only mode of lecture delivery. Few private universities can boast of the capability for online lectures. In Nigeria, generally, there is low adoption of technology in teaching. With the coming of COVID‐19 pandemic which progressively engulfed the globe, the government ordered all institutions to close down to checkmate the spread of the infection.¹ Devoid of other learning alternatives, about 47,422,000 secondary‐ and tertiary‐level students had since been effectively shut out of learning, with attendant negative impacts on the society and the economy. Academic activities have grinded to a complete halt. The situation cannot remain like this. Nigeria has really missed an important chance of converting the challenges due to the pandemic into opportunities. Other countries have grabbed the opportunities and are making good use of them.

Due to the threat of COVID‐19, hundreds of universities, colleges, and polytechnics in the western world, Asia, and South Africa have moved their lectures online.^2-4 Many have canceled all face‐to‐face classes and ordered the faculty to move courses online.^{2, 3} Adoption of online lectures would have enabled the country to improve its educational infrastructure such as learning management systems, teaching tools, and other resources for online learning.

There is also the chance to increase revenue generation for the universities. Elite universities like Harvard, Oxford, Massachusetts, and forth have decades of experience in fully online and blended education and have been raking in huge revenues globally as students enroll in their programs. Purdue University and United States Centre for Education Statistics show that 6 million students are currently enrolled in online courses. UNESCO estimates that currently there are 1.5 billion online students and used the opportunity to rally the support of multilateral partners such as UNICEF, World Bank, private sector such as Microsoft, Google, and nonprofit organizations to support countries to deliver online education. So Nigeria cannot benefit from this initiative.

Due to its limitless access, online learning would have helped Nigeria solve the decades‐long problem of inadequate access to university education (every year only about 10–15% of applicants manage to get admitted into universities) due to limited capacity. We urged the Nigerian government to live up to expectations by promulgating the enabling policies and provision of funds for online learning.

尼日利亚拥有2亿多人口，是非洲人口最多的国家。它拥有大约123所大学（公立和私立），其中大多数提供生物化学和分子生物学的本科和研究生课程。尼日利亚的生物化学教学始于1967年，是该国的先锋大学。由于教育领域的预算拨款较低，因此尚未采用在线教学，而面对面教学已成为唯一的授课方式。很少有私立大学可以吹嘘在线讲座的能力。通常，在尼日利亚，技术在教学中的采用率很低。随着COVID-19大流行的到来逐渐席卷全球，政府下令所有机构关闭以遏制感染的蔓延。^1个此后，由于没有其他替代学习方法，大约47,422,000名中专和大专学生被拒之门外，对社会和经济产生负面影响。学术活动已完全停止。这种情况不能保持如此。尼日利亚确实错失了将大流行带来的挑战转化为机会的重要机会。其他国家已经抓住了机会，并正在充分利用它们。

由于COVID-19的威胁，西方世界，亚洲和南非的数百所大学，学院和理工学院已将他们的演讲在线上进行。^2-4许多人取消了所有面对面的课程，并命令教师将课程在线转移。^2，3采用在线讲座将使该国能够改善其教育基础设施，例如学习管理系统，教学工具和其他在线学习资源。

还有机会增加大学的创收能力。哈佛，牛津，马萨诸塞州等一流大学在完全在线和混合教育方面拥有数十年的经验，并且随着学生报读其课程而在全球范围内获得了可观的收入。普渡大学和美国教育统计中心显示，目前有600万学生注册了在线课程。联合国教科文组织估计，目前有15亿在线学生，并借此机会争取联合国儿童基金会，世界银行，微软，谷歌等私营部门，谷歌和非营利组织等多边合作伙伴的支持，以支持各国提供在线教育。因此，尼日利亚无法从这项倡议中受益。

由于其无限的访问权限，在线学习本可以帮助尼日利亚解决由于能力有限而长达数十年的大学教育获取不足的问题（每年只有大约10-15％的申请人设法被录取）。我们敦促尼日利亚政府通过颁布扶持性政策和提供在线学习资金来达到期望。