10 universities to enjoy World Bank's $80 million education grant

The World Bank has approved 80 million dollars grant for Nigeria to fund its 10 Centres of Excellence in universities.

The Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC), Prof. Julius Okojie, announced the approval in Abuja on Monday at a news  conference on the meeting of World Bank with African Centres of Excellence (ACE).

Okojie also announced that Nigeria won 10 slots out of the 18 approved proposals for the establishment of ACEs.

He said the World Bank-funded ACE project was introduced to build capacity in competitively selected institutions to produce in-demand highly skilled labour and applied research.

He said it was also to facilitate rapid development within the African sub-region through the strengthening of ACEs by collaborations and partnership in sharing of talents, skilled labour and higher education services.

“Following the call for proposals on July 15, 2013, the NUC put in place a process to ensure that Nigerian universities win most of the ACEs.

“This process included workshops, mock evaluations, proposal development support, etc,” he said.

The executive secretary said seven Nigerian universities were selected from 15 institutions that would benefit from the ACE grant.

The universities include Redeemers University, Mowe, Ogun, African University of Science and Technology, Abuja, Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, and Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.

Others are; University of Jos, University of Benin; and University of Port Harcourt. more on businessday