Third‐World mathematicians seem to agree that their discipline has an important role to play in their respective countries struggle for total development. For reasons specific to countries of the region, the national effort necessary for building mathematics has to be initiated and led by university mathematics institutions in these countries. The paper attempts to find out whether these institutions are adequately equipped to shoulder their immense responsibility. On examining basic structures of a number of university mathematics departments in the region, it is concluded that these structures are seriously deficient; and a brief description of ‘relevant’ structures is given.