Chairman, NPPRC´ s message
The Africa Centres of Excellence (ACE) Project was instituted in 2013 by the governments of Burkina Faso, Republic of Benin, Ghana, Cameroun, Nigeria, Togo and Senegal, with support from the World Bank. The project was initiated to promote regional specialization amongst Universities in the participating countries within the West and Central African sub-regions, to address common regional development challenges and strengthen their capacities to deliver high quality training and applied research. The National Universities Commission (NUC) is the focal point and the secretariat of the ACE project in Nigeria. The ACE Project Nigeria has constituted the National Project Performance Review Committee (NPPRC), whose membership is made up of representatives of the relevant Ministries, the Centre Leaders of the ACEs, and the World Bank as observer. The NPPRC is tasked with semi-annual review of project performance and implementation support. Nigeria is home to ten (10) out of the twenty-two (22) Africa Centres of Excellence (ACEs) in the West and Central African sub-regions. The ACEs fall within three thematic areas, namely: Agriculture, Health, and Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). All the 10 ACEs in Nigeria are fully effective and have since focused on achieving the goals of the project which aims at firstly, meeting the demand for skills required for the development of the sub-region and secondly, strengthening the capacities of the best African Universities within science related education to enable them deliver high quality training and applied research. We must remember that technology has indeed redefined the way we live, and we are in an era of regional integration where focus is on meeting the demand for skills required for the development of the sub-region, as well as strengthening the capacities of our universities to enable them deliver high quality training and applied research, especially in science related education. This is what the ACE project seeks to promote. I therefore invite you to use this website to further understand what these centres of excellence are doing in addressing the development challenges of the African region.