Abuja varsity gets $2.2 million for meeting research targets

The African University of Science and Technology (AUST) Abuja through the Pan African Materials Institute (PAMI), has received about $2.2 million out of the $8 million approved by the World Bank for meeting up with certain research targets.

The PAMI Center leader, Dr. Omololu AkinOjo, who disclosed this in Abuja, said the centre got the money after they had achieved certain targets in their research work, noting that the World Bank could only disburse the monetary reward based on successes recorded to enhance a sustainable programme.

He said the research work centers on materials for health and education, adding, “We are looking at developments of drugs against using indigenous particles and detection of the disease as well and another one is on energy physics.”

The Centre, according to him, had trained about 330 PhD holders and 400 short-term participants with the aim of improving the living standard of West Africa and Central Africa.

In his remark, the cocentre leader, Dr. Shola Odusanya, said they orgainsed workshops with the aim of getting people to do ‘handsome work’ that could easily be escalated into industrial experiences.

“We choose cancer as our objective to understand better the disease which is peculiar to us in Africa. At the quantity that is similar to the ones used worldwide, it is effective,” he said.

States Chambers of commerce, Senate and House committees on Agriculture, states Agricultural projects/ Development Programme, Agric input providers, agricultural equipment manufacturers and suppliers, agro allied and agro processing industries, development partners, agric NGOS and other players in the agric sector will also grace the event.