The Federal Government has announced plans to secure $150 million in funding support from the World Bank for the implementation of the Africa Centres of Excellence (ACE) Innovate Project, aimed at sustaining advanced research and innovation in Nigerian universities.
Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC), Professor Abdullahi Ribadu, disclosed this on Monday in Abuja during the official launch of the ACE Alliance and the unveiling of a four-volume compendium of key achievements and impacts of the ACE Project in Nigeria.
Ribadu said the Minister of Education, Dr. Maruf Alausa, had written to the Ministry of Finance to begin engagement with the World Bank for the new phase of funding, which will consolidate the gains of the ACE Project and institutionalise excellence in research, innovation, and postgraduate education.
He explained that the ACE Project remains one of the most transformative education initiatives in sub-Saharan Africa, with 17 Nigerian universities hosting 20 Centres of Excellence that have produced research, postgraduate training, and innovations addressing national and regional development priorities in health, agriculture, ICT, education, and engineering.
According to him, the new ACE Innovate Project will build on these achievements while expanding collaboration with other development partners, including the African Development Bank, Islamic Development Bank, and the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa, to ensure sustainability beyond donor cycles.
“We will continue to engage other development partners to explore new collaborative frameworks that can build on the lessons of the ACE Project and the NUC’s goal of ensuring a university system that is at par with its contemporaries globally,” Ribadu said. “We aim to sustain excellence, expand opportunities, and ensure that the structures and systems established under ACE continue to thrive beyond the project’s lifecycle.”
Ribadu also inaugurated an interim steering committee for the newly formed ACE Alliance, chaired by Professor Emenike Ejiogu of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, to promote collaboration, research exchange, and policy engagement among Nigeria’s Centres of Excellence.
He expressed confidence that the project will deepen research collaboration and advance Nigeria’s competitiveness in higher education and innovation.
Speaking at the event, the Minister of Education, Dr. Maruf Alausa, said the ACE Project, jointly funded by the World Bank and the French Development Agency (AFD), has strengthened Nigeria’s leadership position in African higher education, in line with President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, which prioritises education as the foundation for national development.
The minister said the project’s success had prompted the government’s decision to seek additional funding from development partners such as the African Development Bank (AfDB), the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB), and the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa (BADEA) to further revitalise the nation’s university system.
He added that the Compendium of Key Achievements of the ACE Project documents over 2,000 peer-reviewed publications, a directory of scholars and equipment, and records of innovations produced under the World Bank-supported initiative.
Alausa stated that with the ACE Alliance and the Innovate Project, Nigeria is set to transform its universities into centres of growth, innovation, and sustainable development.
“One of the most remarkable achievements of the ACE Project is its contribution to the internationalisation of education,” he said. “The Nigerian ACEs have attracted students and faculty from across Africa, fostering cross-border knowledge exchange and positioning Nigeria as a regional hub for excellence.”
He added that the project has enhanced the global visibility of Nigerian universities and aligned them with international education standards.
National Coordinator of the ACE Project in Nigeria, Dr. Joshua Atah, described the launch of the ACE Alliance as a milestone celebrating investment, innovation, and partnership that has reshaped Nigeria’s higher education landscape since the project’s inception in 2014.
Atah said Nigeria has led the continent in implementing the project, first under ACE I in 2014 with 10 Centres of Excellence, and later under ACE Impact in 2019 with 17 Centres supported by the World Bank and AFD.
He noted that over the past decade, Nigeria’s Centres of Excellence have attracted more than $145 million in performance-based funding and mobilised additional resources exceeding N3.9 billion, $46 million, €1.78 million, and £2.6 million from various sources, reinvested into research, infrastructure, and capacity building.
The Centres, he added, have enrolled more than 45,000 students, including participants from over 15 African countries, and produced over 6,600 graduates, among them 1,596 PhDs.
Atah said the ACE Innovate Project would further strengthen Nigeria’s capacity for research, innovation, and industrial collaboration that supports the country’s economic growth and entrepreneurship ecosystem.
