Our Reporter
NIGERIAN universities and other research institutions in the country have been challenged to join the rest of the world in finding solution to the pandemic coronavirus.
The challenge was handed down to the universities by the Minister of State for Education, Mr. Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, at the 12th World Bank-funded African Centres of Excellence (ACE 1) Conference and 3rd ACE for Development Impact Project Workshop in Abuja.
The minister urged the universities, particularly the World Bank-funded ACE centres, to focus their researches on tackling the killer infection, coronavirus.
The workshop brought together experts from more than 53 universities across Africa to the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
The ACE 1 conference aims at promoting academic cooperation and specialisation among participating universities from the West and Central African sub-regions.
The minister, who was represented by the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Education, Sonny Echono, noted that Africa needed to produce a critical mass of professionals, at the Masters and Doctor of Philosophy levels to meet the labour market demands and to drive development, economic growth and poverty reduction.
The World Bank’s also increased its intervention fund in the 53 universities to over $580 million since the project was first launched in 2014 with 22 Centres in nine West and Central African countries.
The countries included Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal and Togo.
Nigeria had eleven of the 22 centres located in some universities in the country.
The second phase of the project tagged ACE II was launched in East and Southern Africa with 24 centers across Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.
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