The World Bank has revealed that it will invest $70 million on 10 universities in Nigeria in an effort to boost the teaching of science and technology in the country.
This was disclosed by Andreas Blom, the bank’s lead Economist, Global Practice Education while speaking yesterday in Lagos at the opening of the 3-day workshop forthe 22 ACE member universities in Africa. He said, ‘’The World Bank is investing $165 million in ACE Africa and the 10 universities in Nigeria will gulp $70m for this project.’’
The 10 benefiting universities under African Centre for Excellence, ACE, include: Redeemers University, Mowe; Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria; University of Jos, Jos; University of Benin, Benin, and African University of Science and Technology, Abuja. Others are, University of Port-Harcourt, Port Harcourt; Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife; Bayero University, Kano; Benue State University, Makurdi and Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta.
World Bank said it took more interest in funding several areas of Redeemers University Sciences, such as infectious diseases due to the role it played during the Ebola crisis in 2014, adding, ‘’Redeemers University was the testing site for the 2014 Ebola crisis in Nigeria.
‘’They were able to test and turn around the results within six hours. Very critical scientific information that confirmed there was Ebola that allowed the government to very quickly respond and contain the virus,’’ it said.
Blom said Nigeria is the biggest country in the region and has a large number of centres of excellence. He thereby urged the Nigerian government to raise the quality of its universities, adding that a lot of Nigerians were going outside the country, spending a lot of money on quality education.
‘’All these talents can remain in Nigeria to educate Nigerians. But for that to happen, we need better universities. We need very good teachers, curriculum and laboratories, so that Nigeria talents stay in Nigeria and work for Nigeria developmental problems,” he added
