As the federal government celebrates the dominance of its universities in the selection of Africa’s Centres of Excellence, AUGUSTINE OKEZIE looks forward to the gains and the challenges accompanying this recognition.
Project steering committee member and executive secretary of National Universities Commission,(NUC), Professor Julius Okojie observed at the 2nd meeting of the committee that nineteen African Centers of Excellence out of which Nigeria won ten of its award is spread across the African continent to coordinate sharing activities among Universities on the African continent.
Professor Okojie further described Nigeria’s contribution of ten Africa Centres of Excellence as a relief to other sub regions of the African continent.
He advocated regional collaboration on higher education and urged tertiary institutions in the continent to embrace the task of guidance and evaluation.
“there is a great need for the steering committee in the sense that this will help sustain the project and also coordinate sharing of information and research work”
“the members of the Africa centers of Excellence steering committee is to ensure even development among African universities”
“the committee is to ensure that the project does not fail at any level or in any region.”
Supervising Minister of Education, Chief (Barr.) Ezenwo Nyesom Wike, who appreciated the efforts of the participating countries, pledged the commitment of Nigeria to make the most of this opportunity.
‘’I want to thank the Governments of the participating countries and the World Bank for their efforts to improve the quality of education and research in Africa and assure you that the African Centres of Excellence (ACE) will be a huge success, so that more Centres of Excellence would emerge, especially from Nigeria,” he promised’’.
The World Bank, which is the leading development partner in the funding of the center of excellence project, emphasized its set objectives to include the promotion of regional specialization among African Universities in areas that addresses specific and common regional development challenges.
The Bank further disclosed that it has earmarked 150 million US dollar for 19 Centres of Excellence in 8 West and Central African countries.
The World Bank Country Director, Ms. Marie-. Marie- Francoise Marie-Nelly, noted that the formal launching of the African Centres of Excellence Project noted its enormous benefits.
“This workshop marks the launch of a US dollar 150 million investment into 19 Centres of Excellence (ACE) in 8 West African and Central African countries. And for this round, science, technology, mathematics related specialization is the focus”, she said.
Ms. Marie-Francoise Marie-Nelly, who was represented by Sector Leader for Human Development in Nigeria, Professor Foluso Okunmadewa, said that aligning higher education with Africa’s needs of today could rapidly transform the continent.
She stressed the importance of the project and called on African countries to be collaborative so as to foster growth and development in the continent.
“This is the first large scale regional project within Higher education in West and Central Africa. The coordination and knowledge-sharing piece of the African Centres of Excellence project is being implemented by a valued partner, the Association of African Universities. ECOWAS and WAEMU are key supporters of this project as well.
“Africa needs to share its resources and work together. This project aims at exactly this: foster collaboration among universities, share solutions and train students across borders,” she advised.
She went further to disclose the need to support advanced studies in science, technology and mathematics-related disciplines in Africa.
“Take the examples of Benin, Burkina Faso and Cameroon, less than 6% of the higher education graduates are in engineering and technology fields. More than 50% are in social sciences, business and law. This share of science graduates is not enough to help Africa’s fast -growing economy to diversify and be able to sustain strong growth in the future,” she added.
The Association of African Universities, through its launching of centers of excellence, the ACE project is seen as a laudable initiative that should be supported by all. The association said the programme was designed to conceive with a view to make higher education work for the development of the African continent through building of a strong foundation for excellence.
The issue of sustainability of the award and integrity in the administration of funds advanced to award recipients remain some of the questions , stakeholders are already asking ,especially now that the challenges confronting technological and economics development of Africa are quite enormous.
