No fewer than 10 Nigerian universities have qualified for the World Bank’s $1.2 million, an equivalent of N16 billion for research under the Africa Centres of Excellence, ACE project.

The National Universities Commission, (NUC) is expected to work with the World Bank in the coming days to release 10 per cent of the approved funds to enable the universities commence work on the projects.

This was revealed yesterday during the formal signing of the ACE project performance contract in Abuja by the minister of Education, Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau, the World Bank country representative, Mr Bayo Awosemisi and vice chancellors of the benefitting institutions.

The minister revealed that in a competitive process in which over 100 entries were submitted, “the process resulted in the selection of 10 centres in Nigeria out of the 19 centres in the West and Central African sub-regions to become centres of excellence.”

He said that the feat recorded must be encouraged adding that the signing of the project marks a milestone, which is a proof that Nigerian universities have come of age, thereby dispelling the negative impressions about Nigerian universities.

He further warned vice chancellors of benefiting institutions not to interfere with the projects as such would not go unpunished.

“There must not be undue interference and frequent changes in the teams as that would impact negatively on the implementation. All changes must first be cleared with the NUC and we will not hesitate to relocate funds from non-performing ACEs to those that are doing well.”

It would be recalled that May 22, 2014 witnessed the official launch of the ACE project which was instituted in 2013.

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