Prof. Julius Okojie, the Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission (NUC) said on Tuesday that the African University of Science and Technology (AUST), Abuja, and other African Centres of Excellence (ACE) would soon access World Bank’s 80-million-dollar grant.
OKojie said this while briefing newsmen on the African Centres of Excellence (ACE) project in Abuja.
He said AUST had met all the requirements for it to access eight-million-dollar grant.
Okojie recalled that the World Bank had in April 2015, signed a performance contract with nine of the 10 ACEs in Nigeria.
According to him, the ACE project is a competitive regional project spread across seven countries — Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Republic of Benin, Ghana, Cameroon, Togo and Senegal.
“Universities in these countries competed for slots on the project and Nigeria won 10 out the 19 approved centres.
“I am happy to report that AUST has met all the requirements and consequently, we signed the performance contract on June 29.
“We received the notification of the approval of the World Bank declaring the university effective.
“The funds are already here; and by the end of July, all concerned centres should start drawing down on the funds once all requirements are met.
“Ten per cent of the fund will be released first and the rest subsequently.’’
Okojie expressed his satisfaction that the specific programme that won the ACE in AUST which is Pan African Materials Institute (PAMI), was retained.
According to him, the programme will use a systems-based interdisciplinary approach to undertake training and research activities.
He identified the areas of interest as materials for solar energy, health, water purification and affordable housing iinfrastructure.
He urged ACE to boost regional cooperation in research as the recent Ebola experience had buttressed the need for regional cooperation.
The NUC boss said that PAMI would support the training of a critical mass of Ph.D graduates as well as other professionals who would contribute to the development of West Africa.
In his response, Dr Shola Odusanya, PAMI Co-Centre leader, said that the centre was being innovative, rather than just copying what others were doing., adding that it had so far published 15 journal papers in 2015.
According to him, the focus of the centre is on solving the problems confronting the society and making impact in the lives of people.
“In the case of health, we are looking at two diseases that have taken out 50 per cent of our people — cancer and cardio-vascular diseases.
“These are very serious problems and we need to focus on them because many people are dying needlessly.
“Part of the solution is early detection using NANO technology and we have publications in this area.
He thanked the NUC for its efforts in securing the approval of the World Bank fund for the institution.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that other Nigerian universities entitled to the fund as ACEa are Redeemers University, Mowe (Ogun State) and Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (Ogun State).
Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, (Kaduna State), University of Jos (Plateau State), University of Benin (Edo State) and University of Port Harcourt (Rivers State) are also on the list.
Also on the list are Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife (Osun State); Bayero University, Kano, (Kano State) and Benue State University, Makurdi (Benue State). (NAN)
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