7 Nigerian Varsities Emerge For World Bank Sponsored Projects -

Seven Nigerian universities have
successfully emerged among the 15
African universities selected for the
World Bank-sponsored project by
African Centres of Excellence (ACE).
The selection has indicated that some
Nigerian universities are competitive in
their tripartite functions of teaching,
research and community service.
The benefiting universities were selected
after their proposals were evaluated and
considered to have met the
requirements for the ACE project, at the
end of the Project Steering Committee
(PSC) meeting, held in Dakar, Senegal,
on 28 October, 2013.
The new ACEs in Nigeria and their
project titles are: Redeemers University,
Mowe, Ogun State /University of Ibadan,
Ibadan (African Centre of Excellence for
Genomics of Infectious Diseases,
ACEGID); African University of Science
and Technology, Abuja (Pan-African
Materials Institute [PAMI]); Federal
University of Agriculture, Abeokuta
(Centre for Agricultural Development
and Sustainable Environment); Ahmadu
Bello University, Zaria (Centre of
Excellence on Neglected
Tropical Diseases and Forensic
Biotechnology); University of Jos,
(Phytomedicine Research and
Development, ACEPRD); University of
Benin (Centre for Excellence in
Reproductive Health and Innovation)
and the University of Port Harcourt (ACE
Centre for Oil Field Chemicals).
According to the Executive Secretary,
National Universities Commission NUC,
NUC, Professor Julius Okojie, the project
is aimed at developing regional higher
education that would promote regional
specialisation among universities and
address particular common regional
development challenges. He said that it
is also aimed at strengthening the
capacities of benefiting universities to
deliver high quality training and applied
research.
“This is to meet the demand for skills
required for Africa’s development, such
as the extractive industries and
agricultural productivity. The project
would also contribute to the
strengthening of the best African
universities within science-based
education.
“The seven countries across West and
Central Africa participating in the first
phase of the project are Nigeria, Ghana,
Togo, Benin, Cameroun, Burkina Faso
and Senegal. It would be recalled that
following the call for proposals by the
World Bank on 15 July, 2013, Nigerian
universities submitted 55 proposals to
the NUC in the areas of Science,
Technology, Engineering and
Mathematics (STEM) as well as
Agriculture and Health Sciences.”
Okojie explained that in an effort to
ensure that grant winning proposals
were submitted from Nigerian
universities, NUC constituted the
National Project Performance and
Review Committee (NPPRC), an
evaluation Committee, headed by
Professor Adebisi Balogun, to review
and enhance the quality of the
proposals.
The proposals further went through
desk evaluations by a team of 22 African
and international evaluators. Of the 52
proposals that were submitted by all
participating countries to the RFU/AAU,
only 31 were shortlisted, with 16 of
them from Nigerian universities.
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