Nigerian universities have N12.2 billion in the kitty after
ruling West and Central Africa in World Bank-sponsored ACE competition
Ten Nigerian universities have won
$80 million (about N12.2 billion) research grants in the just concluded
competition for African Centres of Excellence (ACE) Project.
Only 19 of the over 52 proposals
submitted by participating higher education institutions in the West and
Central African sub-regions were awarded the World Bank grants.
Interestingly, 10 of the 19
proposals successful after the screening processes were submitted by Nigerian
universities.
The Executive Secretary, National
Universities Commission (NUC), Professor Julius Okojie, the 19 centres were
selected on the basis of merit and transparency and expressed optimism that the
success of the project would make a significant contribution to the development
of Africa.
“Your collective efforts will go a
long way to make Africa self-reliant, a world destination and economic
powerhouse.
"I would like to appeal to
everyone in this project that though there are many challenges common to us in
the African continent, it is going to take us to fix them,” Okojie said.
The ACE project offers African universities
opportunity to improve on agriculture, health, science and technology through
research and each centre is eligible to receive funds up to $8 million.
Nigeria's 10 universities will now
get about $80 million (N12.2 billion) for their research.
Supervising Minister of Education,
Mr Nyesom Wike, urged the winning institutions to ensure they see the projects
through to their full implementation.
The winning institutions include: Federal University of Agriculture Abeokuta for
Agricultural Development and Sustainable Environment; Bayero University,
Nigeria, for Dryland Agriculture, and Benue State University, Nigeria, for Food
Technology and Research, Redeemer’s University, Nigeria, for Genomics of
Infectious Diseases; University of Jos, Nigeria, for Phytomedicine Research and
Development; Ahmadu Bello University, Nigeria, for Neglected Tropical Diseases
and Forensic Biotechnology; University of Benin, Nigeria, for Reproductive
Health and Innovation; African University of Science and Technology, Nigeria,
for Materials; University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria, for Oil Field Chemicals
and Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria, for Science, Technology and Knowledge.
Culled from: Pulseng.com
No comments:
Post a Comment