What would be the role of emerging oil rich countries under todays circumstances?

From the perspective of Higher Education:

Short term - Provide substantial funding to students for pursuing quality higher education. This target group has proven to be extremely lucrative irrespective of old or new oil wealth. Eg: The King Abdullah Scholarship Programme from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on the one hand,  and the Tullow Group scholarships in Ghana on the other hand. One of the important objectives of such funding is often to reduce the reliance on oil wealth and develop the profile of the human resources in a country.

Long term - Depending on a number of factors, the nation's oil wealth is expected to trickle down to the people. However, it has been observed that this seemingly simple model does not always work as expected, due to a number of factors. Eg: the oil-rich middle eastern countries like Iraq and Libya due to political turmoil, Nigeria due to widespread corruption etc.

However, despite challenges, these countries hold tremendous potential for all forms of businesses and sectors, especially Africa.