Ten universities have been granted eight million dollars each from the World Bank as part of efforts to increase research capacities of the country’s ivory towers to meet international standard.
At a meeting with the Nigerian Universities Commission in Abuja, lead economist on the World Bank Team, Andrea Blom said the aim is to fast track rapid development within the African sub-region through the Africa Centres of Excellence Project (ACE) in the schools across Nigeria.
Mr Blom, who identified poverty as a major challenge facing Africa, told the Supervising Minister for Education, that Nigeria has once again taken the lead among other African nations through the ACE Project that would drive greater solutions to the challenges in the country.
The Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Universities Commission, Professor Julius Okogie said the universities achieved this benefit from a competition among other African countries clearing the pathway for a major boost in the nation’s tertiary institutions.
The officials from the World Bank however stated that researchers at each centres of excellence would be expected to come up with knowledge related to critical sectors of the economy such as oil and gas, productivity and agriculture.
Many have in the past blamed the country’s low global academic ranking to poor publications of research achievements but with grant like this, the target would hopefully begin to come to realisation in the near future.