Nigeria launches ₦365 million national academic prize

The Nigerian federal government has launched the Tertiary Institutions National Laureate Prize, an annual ₦365 million award designed to recognize research, innovation, and intellectual excellence. Announced by Minister of Education Maruf Tunji Alausa in Abuja, the initiative aims to reposition tertiary institutions as hubs for problem-solving and enterprise in alignment with President Bola Tinubu’s ‘Renewed Hope Agenda’.

The prize will reward exceptional work across six thematic areas: Engineering and Technology, Medicine and Health Sciences, Arts and Social Sciences, Agriculture, Law, and Teaching Innovation. It targets undergraduate dissertations with commercial potential, as well as master’s and doctoral research with industrial or developmental applications.

A specific award, the Dr Stella Adadevoh Prize for Medicine and Medical Innovation, has been established to honor the late physician whose actions helped prevent the 2014 Ebola outbreak from becoming a national catastrophe. The program is being implemented by the Ministry of Education and the Nigeria Education Repository and Databank (NERD) to encourage research commercialization and strengthen ties between academia and national development.