FG Unveils N365m National Laureate Prize For Tertiary Institutions

The Federal Government has unveiled the Tertiary Institutions National Laureate Prize, with an annual prize pool of approximately N365 million to recognise outstanding academic research, innovation and intellectual excellence across Nigeria’s tertiary institutions.

The Minister of Education, Dr. Maruf Olatunji Alausa, CON, disclosed this while briefing journalists, saying the initiative was part of the Federal Government’s broader efforts to reposition education as a catalyst for national development.

Alausa said he recently inaugurated the Tertiary Institutions National Laureate Prize Committee to provide strategic direction, governance and oversight for the programme while ensuring its credibility and integrity.

He said the prize was designed to strengthen Nigeria’s culture of scholarship and innovation by ensuring that exceptional academic work receives national recognition and support.

“Nigerian universities and other tertiary institutions are home to students and academics conducting research, developing technologies and creating solutions capable of addressing critical national challenges,” Alausa said.

The minister stressed that scholarship, research, innovation and intellectual excellence must occupy a more prominent position in Nigeria’s national development agenda.

The prize is being jointly implemented by the Nigeria Education Repository and Databank (NERD) and the Federal Ministry of Education under the education-sector initiatives of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda.

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According to Alausa, the programme will provide a structured national platform for identifying and rewarding exceptional academic research with strong potential for innovation, commercialisation, industrial application and national development.

The annual prize pool of approximately N365 million will cover various categories of outstanding academic work, including undergraduate dissertations with strong commercial potential, exceptional Master’s theses and PhD research with clear industrial and developmental applications.

The programme will also feature special prizes in critical areas including Engineering and Technology, Medicine and Health Sciences, Arts and Social Sciences, Agriculture, Law and Teaching Innovation.

One of the special awards will be the Dr. Stella Adadevoh Prize for Medicine and Medical Innovation, established in honour of the late physician whose courage and professional sacrifice played a significant role in containing the 2014 Ebola outbreak in Nigeria.

Alausa emphasised that the credibility of the Laureate Prize would depend on the integrity of its selection process.

He assured that the process would be transparent, competitive and merit-driven, and insulated from political, institutional or personal influence.

“Excellence must remain the sole determining factor,” he said.

The minister added that submissions would comply with the National Policy on the Nigeria Education Repository and Databank, strengthening the accessibility, integrity and preservation of Nigeria’s intellectual output.

Alausa said the National Laureate Prize was designed to go beyond rewarding academic excellence, describing it as an initiative that would reshape the aspirations of Nigerian students and researchers.

He said it would encourage undergraduate students to pursue commercially viable innovations, inspire Master’s students to develop solutions to national challenges, and help doctoral researchers connect academic work with industrial application, enterprise development and economic growth.

“Nigeria’s education system must move beyond producing certificates to producing solutions, innovations, enterprises and measurable national value,” Alausa said.

He added that the leading economies of the 21st century would be those capable of transforming knowledge into solutions, research into enterprises and intellectual capital into economic and industrial value.

The minister reaffirmed the Federal Government’s commitment, under the leadership of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, to building an education system that develops the knowledge, skills, creativity and innovation required to drive Nigeria’s economic transformation and global competitiveness.

Alausa said the Tertiary Institutions National Laureate Prize represented another important step towards creating a Nigeria where excellence is recognised, scholarship is celebrated, innovation is rewarded and the intellectual capacity of young Nigerians is deliberately harnessed for national development.