By George OPARA
The National Universities Commission (NUC) has struck an additional $65m deal with the World Bank under the Sustainable Procurement, Environmental and Social Standards Enhancement Project (SPESSE) .
Spear News learnt the implementation of this project is ongoing in the universities across the federation.
First, the SPESSE project was launched in 2021 with an initial $80m World Bank facility to strengthen Nigeria’s capacity in procurement, environmental, and social governance through specialised training in universities.
The fresh and additional contract was signed on Wednesday at the NUC secretariat in Abuja, with representatives of participating universities, the World Bank, and the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) in attendance.
At the event, Abdullahi Ribadu, executive secretary of the NUC, said the additional financing phase marked “not only a continuation of the initiative, but also a renewed opportunity to consolidate achievements, scale impacts, and deepen sustainability measures across the participating institutions”.
The project was designed to solve the critical gap in the Nigerian university system,” he said
In his words, “Insufficient supply of skilled professionals in procurement, environmental and social safeguards, as well as the limited availability of specialised academic programmes in these fields.”
Ribadu said six centres of excellence were established across the geopolitical zones to implement the project under the coordination of the NUC and with support from the World Bank.
Further, he highlighted that the implementing centres are located in Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Lagos State University (LASU), and other universities across the country..
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