WORLD BANK RELEASES N1.4BN TO 10 NIGERIAN UNIVERSITIES

The World Bank has released the sum of 1.4billion naira to ten universities in Nigeria listed among the African Centres of Excellence (ACE) for the special project meant to reinforce the ranking of the universities in agriculture, health, science, technology, engineering and mathematics. It is very interesting to know that Nigerian universities won 10 out of the 19 slots for Africa. Where are those pessimists that are fond of condemning the contemporary quality of university education in Nigeria?

This development was made known to Tectono Business Review by the Executive Secretary of National Universities Commission, Professor Julius Okojie, during the ACE project post-effectiveness workshop in Abuja a few days ago. He cautioned the benefiting universities against compromising the objectives of the scheme. Here is the list of benefiting universities:

·         Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta

·         Bayero University, Kano

·         Benue State University

·         Redeemer’s University, Ede, Osun State.

·         University of Jos

·         Ahmadu Bello University

·         Zaria; University of Benin

·         University of Port Harcourt

·         Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State.

Professor Okojie said: “The success of the ACE project holds the prospect of favourable global ranking for Nigerian universities and the nation cannot afford to toy with the opportunity. The feat of a Nigerian university, which assisted in checking the spread and scourge of the Ebola Virus Disease when it broke out in the country, would have ordinarily earned Nigeria a top place among world universities.”

According to Professor Okojie, NUC has commenced investigations to identify universities offering online degrees with a view to checking their illicit operations. He added that the essence of inaugurating ACE project in 2014 by the governments of Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Republic of Benin, Ghana, Cameroon, Togo and Senegal was to promote regional development challenges in the participating countries.