Stakeholders Present ACE Scorecard at PSC Meeting

The beautiful city of Lagos, Nigeria, on Monday, 15 May, 2017, played host to the 10th Africa Centres of Excellence (ACE) Project Steering Committee (PSC) meeting, which took place at the Intercontinental Hotel, Victoria Island. The meeting, which the country hosted for the second time, comprised the World Bank, the Association of African Universities (AAU) and heads of regulatory agencies of the countries participating in the project.

Welcoming members to the meeting and international guests to Nigeria, Chairman of the PSC and Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC), Professor Abubakar Adamu Rasheed, said that the aim of the meeting was to identify the challenges of the Project, so far, to ascertain shortcomings and explore means of moving the Project forward. He called on members to explore the ACEs’ potentials to provide hope for the development of the education system in participating universities, adding that it was important to adopt measures to ensure the sustainability of the Project, beyond the expiration of funds from the World Bank.

The Chairman reminded members that the ACEs belonged to the universities, rather than any individual and decried a situation where Centre Leaders with substantive appointments outside the Project, which deterred them from being actively involved in the day-to-day running of the Centres, refused to relinquish their positions as Centre Leaders, resulting in the mismanagement of the ACEs. He said that any university incapable of finding a replacement for the Centre Leader from within the university community was not qualified to host a Centre of Excellence.

Professor Rasheed observed that, for the Nigerian ACEs, the Project was a good opportunity to strengthen research activities, as against their focus, which was, hitherto, teaching and community development. He lamented the inability of the ACEs to transcend regional and language barriers, to form strong collaborations among one another and urged them to collaborate, not only among themselves, but also with the host universities, to explore possibilities of staff and student exchange, among other collaborations.

The Chairman expressed appreciation to all who made the ACE project a reality and those responsible for driving it. He commended the ACE 1 Task Team Lead, Mr. Andreas Blom, for his commitment to the success of the ACE Project and expressed optimism that the meeting would be conducted in a frank, open and courageous manner.

In his remarks, Secretary-General of the AAU, Professor Etienne Ehile, extended the gratitude of the AAU and World Bank to the Federal Government of Nigeria, through the NUC, for hosting the PSC and ACE Project Workshop for the second time. He noted that, since the last meeting of the PSC, in Abidjan, in November, 2016, significant progress had been made in project management, with activities such as the mid-term review, supervision missions to the ACEs, the ACE governors’ management helpline, among others.

Professor Ehile stated that the ACE mid-term implementation progress review had resulted in many key observations and recommendations for operational improvement being brought forward for discussions and decision-making. These include the revised specific Disbursement-Linked Indicators (DLIs), funds re-allocation from Centres with weak implementation strategies, improving DLI verification process, improving funds utilisation, improving regional facilitation and coordination, etc.

Members of the ACE Project Steering Committee (PSC)

Professor Ehile noted that the AAU was proud of a number of Centres, which had taken the lead and shown strong resolve to succeed. Unfortunately, he said, some ACEs were still under-performing, due to various challenges, such as poor governance. He stated that AAU, as the Regional Facilitating Unit (RFU), remained hopeful that these Centres would catch up with their counterparts, with the continued guidance of the World Bank and AAU.

ACE 1 Task Team Lead, Mr Andreas Blom, in his remarks, commended the Executive Secretary, NUC, for his energy, attention and excellent stewardship of the ACE project in Nigeria. He expressed appreciation to Professor Ehile for his dedication and for burning the midnight oil, to ensure the success of the Project. He noted that while some of the challenges of the Project had been resolved, others, such as regional student enrolment, international accreditation, faculty incentives, poor governance structure and poor utilisation of funds, remained a source of concern.

Mr. Blom noted that the Project had not achieved the desired mid-term objectives, with regard to funds disbursement. He informed the meeting that a number of ACEs were still sitting on their funds, regardless of the time-bound nature of the Project. These Centres were not investing enough of their funds, he said, urging the defaulting Centres to accelerate the process of funds utilisation.

The PSC meeting in session

Mr. Blom commended the ACEs and the governments’ ownership of the projects in their universities, adding that there was a joint effort by both parties, which was necessary for the solution of challenges and, in the long run, the success of the Project. He stated that the ACE Project was on the right track and was receiving significant attention from development partners and prospective partner-universities. It had also received internal support from the World Bank to scale up the Project, provided the Centres continued turning out positive results.

The Task Team Lead stated that the potentials which university education and research bring to development are limitless. He observed the possibility of positioning the ACEs to provide universities the necessary skills to tackle development challenges in energy, health, agriculture, transport, technology and all other areas where knowledge and development is needed, among participating countries.

The meeting was also attended by the Project’s subject-matter specialists: Professor Hadiza Galadanci and Dr. Michelle Niescierenko (Health); Professor Mamoudu Diallo and Gen. Xavier Michel (STEM) and Professor Raphael Wahome (Agriculture).

The meeting agreed that the next PSC meeting and Project Workshop, which would cover both ACE I and ACE II, would be held in November, 2017, in Accra, Ghana, to enable under performing ACEs to glean from the experiences of the Centres in Ghana.