Buhari urges universities to source research funds abroad

PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari, at the weekend, urged Nigerian universities to use their management skills to access international research and innovation grants and to use their potential, even as Federal Government struggles to fund universities in a COVID19 impacted economy.

Buhari, who spoke during the third convocation of

Federal University of Petroleum Resources ( FUPRE), Effurun, Delta State, said one of the biggest challenges facing universities in Nigeria and Africa is funding, which he said was partly caused by “prevailing global economic adversities.”

The President, represented by the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, said Federal Government established

FUPRE as a specialised petroleum university in March 2007 as an institution of higher learning to train middle and high- level skilled manpower and relevant expertise for the oil and gas sector in Nigeria and for the entire world

He said government would not relent in its efforts to confront challenges and tasked universities to also “apply management skills to access international research and innovation grants, and to exploit its huge potential.”

The President, who also witnessed the installation of the paramount ruler of Remo land, Oba Babatunde Adewale Ajayi, as chancellor of the university, assured FUPRE management that government would continue to provide infrastructural, research facilities and equipment for the purpose of promoting teaching, learning and research, thereby enhancing growth and development of the university.

He admonished management to apply prudence and accountability in the handling financial and material resources made available to the university as it devices creative ways to position itself as the one- stop training centre of excellence.