FUTO named Africa Centre of Excellence by World Bank

Federal University of Technology, Owerri, has been selected as Africa Centre of Excellence in Future Energies and Electro-Chemical Systems (ACE-FUELS) by the World Bank to run international master’s degree programmes in Electrochemical Technology, Future Energies, Nanotechnology and Corrosion Technology.

The vice chancellor, Professor Francis Chukwuemeka Eze, said that an endowment of a professorial chair worth N20 million per annum has been put in place in the Department of Information Technology for an initial period of two years by the Nigerian Communications Commission.

This, he said, is to enhance research activities that would foster ICT growth for sustainable development and social advancement, while supporting capacity building among academics.

Eze explained this at a media briefing to mark his third anniversary as the seventh substantive vice chancellor of the university, during which he enumerated some of the achievements recorded by his administration.

He said the university had been able to attract recognition in both local and international arena, and that its drive for a culture of excellence is ongoing.

Professor Eze disclosed that adequate attention had been given to the procurement of equipment for practical training of students and expansion of research activities, while the university also recently procured and installed teaching equipment for all the eight schools in the university.

Eze, a professor of physics, listed encroachment on the university’s land, hostility and uncooperative attitude of the host communities, lack of staff quarters, inadequate power supply, poor road networks, inadequate hostel accommodation as well as poor funding as among the challenges confronting the institution.