FG Urges Varsities to Focus Researches on Coronavirus

The Federal Ministry of Education has urged Nigerian universities to focus researches on tackling the killer infection, coronavirus.

The Minister of State for Education, Mr Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba, disclosed this in Abuja at the 12th ACE 1 Conference and 3rd ACE for Development Impact Project Workshop which brought together experts from more than 53 universities across Africa to the Federal Capital Territory.

The ACE 1 conference aims at promoting academic cooperation and specialisation among participating universities from the West and Central African sub-regions.

“Africa needed to produce professionals at the Masters and Doctor of Philosophy levels to meet the labour market demands and to drive development, economic growth and poverty reduction,” the minister noted.

“The ACE Project in selected universities is all about addressing common regional challenges and strengthening institutional capacities to deliver high quality training and applied researches. The objective of the ACE Impact Project is to improve the quality, quantity and development impact of postgraduate education through regional specialisation and collaboration,” he added.

The Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission, Prof. Abubakar Rasheed, said one of the Nigerian universities’ ACEs, through researches, developed a 10-minute testing kit for both the Ebola and Lassa fever viruses.

Rasheed added that the ACE project was launched by the World Bank in 2013 to promote regional specialisation among universities to address development challenges and strengthen their capacities.

The ACEs, now in about 44 universities in Nigeria, were established to address common regional development challenges and strengthen their capacities to deliver high quality training and applied research.