The 22 Africa Centres of Excellence (ACEs) in West and Central Africa, 10 of them in Nigeria, have continued to soar higher as the Project approaches its mid-term. The 7th Regional Workshop of the Project, which took place at the Intercontinental Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos, from 16 – 18 May, 2017, provided a forum to present the projec’s key results, challenges and next steps.
Among the key results presented at the Workshop is the remarkable progress on student enrolment: No fewer than 8, 000 students are enrolled in new specialised short-term courses, and Master and PhD programmes, up from 5, 258 in March 2016. The ACE project has substantial regional outreach, with universities in Nigeria, for the first time, attracting students from the sub-region, including the Gambia. More than 1, 900 regional students are enrolled in Centres across West Africa.
Another key result is excellence, through International Accreditation: The ACEs are leading in meeting global standards, with four Centres having established international accreditation in Engineering; at the 2iE Centre for Water and Environmental Sciences in Burkina Faso; at the Centre for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens at the University of Ghana; Centre for Mathematics and ICT at the University of Gaston Berger, Senegal; and Centre for ICT at the University of Yaounde I, Cameroon.
Yet another key result is that of excellent and relevant applied research, where the ACEs are leading ground-breaking research being undertaken at African universities by African Scientists. The Africa Centres of Excellence for Genomics of Infectious Diseases, at the Redeemer’s University, Ede, Osun State, where the first sample of Ebola was tested in Nigeria, published world-class research on the Ebola virus in Nature Science.
The Africa Centre of Excellence in Applied Mathematics and ICT at the University of Gaston Berger in Senegal will host the headquarters of the International Laboratory for Research in Computer Science and Mathematics (LIRIMA) for the period 2015 – 2018.
Still on the list of key results is the push for University-Industry Linkages: The Project strongly supports university – industry linkages through internships, with the number of participating students growing steadily from 325 in 2014, to 386 in 2015 and 832 in 2016.
In addition to these, the ACE Project is building capacity in revenue generation for the Centres, such that externally generated revenue by the ACEs is now a total of USD18.3 million. The University of Ghana’s Africa Centre for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens, for example, raised 5.1 million pounds from the Wellcome Trust, through a competitive fund grant, outbidding more than 50 other proposals across Africa.
The ACE Project is the first regional results-based higher education project, which means that it is financed, based on results achieved by each Centre. The results centre on achievement of quality and impactful education and research excellence. These results (otherwise known as Disbursement Linked Indicators) include publishing in international peer reviewed journals, quality benchmarks, including international accreditation, internship of students in industry as well as enrolling Masters and PhD students.
Minister of State for Education, Professor Anthony Anwukah, declaring the Workshop open
The Honourable Minister of State for Education (HMSE), Professor Anthony Anwukah, who declared the 7th Regional Workshop of the ACEs open, stated that the Federal Government of Nigeria would adopt the World Bank’s Disbursement-Linked Indicator (DLI) model in rewarding excellence in the Nigerian University System (NUS).
Professor Anwukah noted that the government of Nigeria, through the ACE experience, was revolutionising higher education in terms of research and postgraduate training. As a result, the government was scaling up the Project, to accommodate more institutions as well as introduce more DLIs.
The HMSE affirmed the Federal Government’s pride in the ACE Project and its satisfaction with the successes recorded, so far. He re-iterated the commitment of the Federal Government, through the Federal Ministry of Education, to ensuring the sustainability of the Project beyond its initial life cycle. In his words “Working together, along with the various funding agencies, such as the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF), and others, we hope to be strategic in our collaboration to sustain this project in a way that would ensure a reduction in duplication of efforts in terms of project implementation.”
Professor Anwukah acknowledged the roles of the Association of African Universities (AAU) and the World Bank in ensuring the success of this project. He commended the regulatory agencies, particularly, the National Universities Commission (NUC), for their hard work and commitment to the project. The Minister of State also commended all the Centres of Excellence, the Vice-Chancellors of the host universities, as well as principal officers and staff of the ACEs present. He urged the ACEs to collaborate with one another and explore means of sustaining the ACE project beyond the World Bank intervention.
Mr. Andreas Blom
In his remarks, the World Bank Country Director for Nigeria, Dr. Rachid Benmessaoud, affirmed the importance of the Bank’s support to the ACEs, which seeks to lay the right long-term foundation for skills development and capacity building in Africa. He noted that the ACE project was an important one, and was gaining high level attention from development partners, industries and other stakeholders. The recent visit to CERSA (the Centre of Excellence in Poultry Science at the University of Togo, in Lome), by the World Bank Vice-President for Africa, Mr. Makhtar Diop, was a clear illustration of the importance given to the Project by the Bank’s management.
Dr. Benmessaoud informed participants that, in recognition of the efforts and success recorded with the ACE Project, the World Bank was actively considering options to scale it up and, over the coming months, would be reaching out to the governments of participating countries, to discuss options for same.
Dr. Benmessaoud thanked the Federal Government of Nigeria and the AAU for hosting the Workshop and congratulated all the Centres for a successful implementation of the ACE project.
Welcoming the delegates to Nigeria, Executive Secretary of NUC, Professor Abubakar A. Rasheed, stated that the concept of ACE, like most great ideas in the world, started as a dream. Some years ago, he said, the World Bank, represented by the its Task Team Lead for Education, Mr. Andreas Blom, conceived the dream to stimulate serious research in Science and Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), Agriculture and Health, in sub-Saharan Africa and raise a critical mass of persons who would solve Africa’s mounting developmental challenges. “Today, the Project is marking its mid-term review”, he said, and commended all those who had contributed to the realisation of the dream.
Professor Rasheed re-iterated the commitment of the government of Nigeria, through NUC, to the process that would enable the nation to achieve the aims of the Project. He informed participants that the Commission visited a number of the Nigerian ACEs to garner first-hand knowledge of their activities and was not disappointed by its findings. He added that efforts would be made to visit the remaining Centres before the end of the year. The AAU and World Bank were also carrying out joint supervision missions with the NUC, to the Nigerian ACEs, to ensure adherence to Project guidelines as well as the success of the Project.
The Executive Secretary announced that NUC had concluded resource verification, national accreditation, and programme audit exercises for the Nigerian ACEs. He expressed the desire to see the Centres and the NUS working in close partnership with research institutes, to address the nation’s development challenges. The NUC, Professor Rasheed said, would be working closely with the Ministry of Science and Technology as well as relevant stakeholders, to ensure the achievement of project goals.
Professor Rasheed informed participants that, as part of efforts to increase awareness and disseminate information on the ACE project, the maiden edition of the quarterly journal for the Nigerian ACEs had been published, and work was on-going on the second edition as well as a documentary.
The Executive Secretary thanked the Federal Ministry of Education for its interest in the success of the project. He commended the World Bank team, particularly Mr. Andreas Blom, Ms. Himdat Bayusuf and Ms. Aisha Garba, for their efforts at ensuring that the Project is conducted in a transparent manner. He also expressed appreciation to the subject matter specialists, such as Professor Raphael Wahome, Dr. Michelle Niescierenko, Professor Hadiza Galadanci, Professor Mamoudu Diallo and Gen. Xavier Michel for their commitment to the Project.
Prof. Etienne Ehile
In his remarks, the Secretary-General of the AAU, Professor Etienne Ehile, said that the Workshop, which was preceded by the 10th meeting of the Project Steering Committee (PSC), was aimed at taking stock of achievements in the Centres, since the Abidjan workshop, in November, 2016.
Professor Ehile noted that while some ACEs had excelled and were leading the Project, some, unfortunately, were still struggling, largely due to implementation challenges, such as governance. This, he said, could only be solved at the national level, since the AAU could not interfere with every country’s processes. He enjoined the struggling ACEs to hold discussions with their governments, to explore means of resolving lingering issues, to ensure the success of the Project.
As a result of their participation in the World Bank-funded ACE Project, many ACEs are currently attracting partnerships and additional funding from development partners. These include:
- Centre for Dryland Agriculture, Bayero University, Kano – MacArthur Foundation.
- West African Centre for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens, University of Ghana – The Wellcome Trust.
- Centre for Genomics of Infectious Diseases, Redeemer’s University, Ede – United States Centre for Disease Control and Prevention.
- Centre for Mining, Institut National Polytechnique Felix Houphouet-Boigny, Cote d’Ivoire – Agence Francaise de Developpment (AFD).
- Centre for Information and Communication Technologies, Cameroon – AFD.
- Centre for Climate Change, Universite Felix Houphouet Boigny, Cote d-Ivoire – BMZ, Germany.
- Pan African Materials Institute, African University of Science and Technology, Abuja – Africa Development Bank.
- Centre for Education and Research in Water, Energy and Environment Sciences, 2iE, Burkina Faso – Africa Development Bank.
However, the Centres still have a lot to do, some of which are:
- Developing stronger industry relations to enhance the transfer of knowledge and technology,
- Developing more African talents,
- Increasing regional students and having an international marketing and specialisation for African universities,
- Enhancing regional policy making and sustainable ACEs as well as a regional centre of excellence programme and scholarship programme.
L-R: World Bank Health Specialist, Prof Hadiza Galadanci; Co-Task Team Lead, Ms. Aisha Garba; Education Specialist, Mrs Ekua Bentil and Communications Officer, Mrs Olufunke Olufon, at the PSC meeting
The 7th ACE Regional Workshop in Pictures
