The National Universities Commission (NUC) has commended the Redeemer’s University, Ede, Osun State, for its contributions towards the diagnosis of Ebola virus which has been responible for more than 11,000 deaths.
Speaking during the past week, at the signing of performance contract among NUC, World Bank and 10 Nigerian Africa Centres of Excellence (ACE) in Abuja, the Executive Secretary of the commission, Prof. Julius Okojie lauded the university’s research on Ebola.
Redeemer’s University had developed a rapid response diagnostics test that can detect Ebola virus in 15 minutes.
According to Okojie, ACE’s project was instituted in 2013 by the governments of Burkina Faso, Benin Republic, Ghana, Cameroon, Nigeria, Togo and Senegal with support from World Bank.
“Redeemer’s University had a very unique project in Ebola research when the virus came on board and they responded very quickly to the challenge; we are still celebrating our success.
“Following a competitive process, 19 Centres of Excellence emerged from the West and Central African sub-regions, out of which Nigerian universities won 10.
“The ACE project has the capacity to transform the economic landscape of the sub-region, only if we can look inward and come up with innovations that can address our common problems,” said Okojie.
Also speaking at the event, the Minister of Education, Malam Ibrahim Shekarau said that the World Bank assisted project is targeted at promoting research in agriculture, health, science and technology, engineering and mathematics.
According to him, the signing of the performance contract was the last hurdle towards making ACE effective in Nigeria.
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