World Bank has disbursed the sum of N1. 4billion to 10 universities under the African Centres of Excellence (ACE) project in Nigeria.
Executive Secretary (ES), National Universities Commission (NUC), Prof. Julius Okojie who spoke yesterday at the opening ceremony of a two-day workshop on ACE Project Post-Effectiveness in Abuja, named the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU),Ile-Ife, Bayero University, Kano, Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Redeemer University and University of Port Harcout as some of the beneficiaries of the funding lifeline.
He said the process of determining the beneficiaries of the project was rigorous and competitive.
He said:“We have gone through series of very rigorous competition to determine the beneficiaries of this project. A lot of capacity building and documentation have also been done. I am happy to announce that the ACE has disbursed the sum of N1, 471, 723, 265, 50 to the ten ACEs in Nigeria.
“The first tranche was shared equally among the ten ACEs in order to avoid delays in implementation due to low liquidity. It is important to emphasise that what each university will get after today depends on the results that they produce.’’
He said one of the results was number of national and regional students enrolled in new specialised short-term courses and Master and PhD programmes.
According to Okojie, the aim of the Project Development Objective (PDO) is to support the recipients to promote regional specialisation among participating universities.
He said:“This workshop was therefore put together primarily to build the capacity of all stakeholders in this project in order to ensure they understand their roles and responsibilities.
“Emphasis will be on financial management and audit processes, procurements, safeguards, communications as well as deliberation with NUC team on the next steps.’’
The NUC boss said another objective was to meet the labour market demands for skills within specific areas where there were shortages.
Dr. Tunde Adekola, a representative of the World Bank, said it was the first time Nigeria was receiving such massive support from the bank.
He said that essence of accommodating state and private universities in the ACE project was to make it competitive.
Adekola said the goal of the project was results, adding the World Bank would monitor it to ensure efficiency.
Like MyPortalNg on Facebook!
