FG Unveils National Knowledge Prize to Reward Outstanding Tertiary Institutions By Beauty Akporido Aroh
The Federal Government has unveiled the Tertiary Institutions National Knowledge Prize, a new initiative designed to recognise and reward outstanding academic research, innovation and intellectual excellence across Nigeria’s tertiary institutions.
The Minister of Education, while speaking at the inauguration of the National Knowledge Prize Committee, said the initiative was aimed at strengthening Nigeria’s culture of scholarship and innovation while creating a national platform for exceptional academic work with potential for commercialisation, industrial application and national development.
He said the committee was inaugurated to provide strategic direction, governance and ensure the integrity of the prize and its implementation.
According to the minister, Nigeria has a large pool of students, researchers and academics developing innovative solutions capable of addressing some of the country’s most pressing developmental challenges, but many of these achievements have not received the national recognition they deserve.
> “Scholarship matters, research matters, innovation matters, and intellectual excellence deserves a prominent place in our national consciousness,” the minister said.
He explained that the prize would recognise outstanding academic work at different levels, including undergraduate dissertations with strong commercial potential, exceptional master’s theses and doctoral research with clear industrial and developmental applications.
The initiative will also feature special prizes for outstanding research in critical fields, including engineering and technology, medicine and health sciences, agriculture, law, arts and social sciences, as well as teaching innovation.
The minister further announced that some of the special awards would honour distinguished Nigerians whose contributions to national development symbolise excellence, courage and service.
Among them is the Dr. Stella Adedegbo Prize for Medicine and Medical Innovation, established in recognition of the late physician’s contribution during the 2014 Ebola outbreak in Nigeria.
The minister stressed that the credibility of the National Knowledge Prize would depend largely on the integrity of its selection process, assuring that the process would be transparent, competitive and merit-driven.
He said the selection of winners would be insulated from political, institutional and personal influence, insisting that excellence would remain the principal criterion.
The minister added that the submission of academic reports and entries would conform to the national policy of the Nigeria Education Repository and Data Bank, which he said would enhance the integrity, accessibility and preservation of Nigeria’s intellectual output.
He described the initiative as more than an award scheme, saying it was designed to reshape the aspirations of Nigerian students and researchers by demonstrating that scholarship, innovation and intellectual excellence could attract national recognition and create pathways to enterprise and economic development.
According to him, the government wants undergraduate students developing commercially viable innovations, master’s students working on solutions to national challenges and doctoral researchers pursuing industrially relevant research to see a clear pathway from academic work to enterprise creation and national development.
The minister said Nigeria’s education system must move beyond producing certificates to producing solutions, innovations, enterprises and measurable economic value.
He noted that countries that would succeed in the 21st century would be those capable of transforming knowledge into solutions, research into enterprises and intellectual capital into economic and industrial value.
He said the National Knowledge Prize was therefore part of the Federal Government’s broader effort to build an education system capable of providing the knowledge, skills, creativity and innovation required to drive Nigeria’s economic transformation and strengthen its global competitiveness.
The minister urged stakeholders across the education sector to support the initiative, stressing that researchers, innovators, scholars and the country’s intellectual institutions deserved greater national recognition.
The National Knowledge Prize is being implemented by the Federal Ministry of Education in collaboration with the Nigeria Education Repository and Data Bank.
