EXECUTIVE SECRETARY OF NUC CALL FOR THE SUSTENANCE OF THE AFRICA CENTERS OF EXCELLENCE, ACE-PROJECT, IN NIGERIA 05-06-25
By Sadiq Aminu. The Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission, NUC, Professor Abdullahi Ribadu has called for the sustenance of the Africa Centres of Excellence, ACE-project, in Nigeria, as the current phase of funding for the programme ends this month.
The ACE-Impact project is funded by the World Bank and the French Development Agency to enhance the capacity of higher education and research in critical sectors in participating countries.
At the pre-closure retreat for the Project in Abuja, Professor Ribadu tasked the beneficiary institutions to look beyond donor support and secure alternative funding sources as well as entrench governance frameworks that attract both public and private investment.
“The projects are already on the ground and at this retreat, we will focus more on how this project will continue even beyond the closure of funds. So we are focusing more on the universities themselves. We are challenging the universities to generate funds from the projects that they have.
So we really don’t want to say the government must even budget for the sustainability of these projects.” He said
The National Project Coordinator of the ACE Project, Mr. Joshua Attah, said the project with seventeen centres, domiciled in 14 Nigerian universities, had made significant strides in research output, postgraduate training, and regional academic integration.
He further said”New labs have been built, state-of-the-art equipment have been imported. Innovations have been brought to bear on the system.
Even the quality and quantity of the research publications across the centres also improved significantly. And it’s also important to highlight the fact that the programmes at the universities have not only attained national accreditation but all of them that were subjected to international accreditation were successful. And that is a confirmation that the quality of these programmes have met international best practices.”
Mr. Attah stated that the 17 centres had earned $89.1 million through the achievement of Disbursement Linked Indicators and generated additional funding of over ₦3.2 billion, $24.9 million, €1.77 million, and £589,000 from local and international sources.
The Vice Chancellor of Lagos State University, Professor Ibiyemi Olatunji-Bello, one of the benefitting institutions, said the Project had helped increase the international rating of the university.