The Vice-Chancellor, Reedemer’s University of Nigeria, Professor Debo Adeyewa, has said that achievements of the institution have proven that it is a standard university.

He said this on Saturday while briefing journalists on the matriculation and awards bagged by the university.

Adeyewa noted that to show that the institution could hold its own among its peers academically, RUN recently bagged the World Bank African centre of Excellence Project and a grant of $1.54m for research and training of Africans in Genomics.

He said, “How can people be saying that we are a glorified university, despite our achievements? We are not. We belong to ‘A’ class university and rankings have proved this. Private universities should be given a place of pride in Nigeria.

“Just recently, RUN was rated as the most suitable among 15 other universities from West and Central Africa for the establishment of the African Centre of Excellence Project funded by the World Bank. The announcement was made at the end of African Centre of Excellence Project Steering Committee meeting held in Dakar, Senegal.

“There, the university won a World Bank grant to fund the establishment of the African Centre of Excellence for Genomics of Infectious Diseases.

“Also, the university won a grant of 1.54 million dollars for the next four years to support research and training of Africans in the field of Genomics and building scientific infrastructure under the Human, Hereditary and Health in Africa (H3Africa) programme, funded by a partnership between the United States National Institutes of Health and the United Kingdom’s Welcome Trust.”

In the same vein, the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta also won the World Bank’s ACE award in Agriculture.

The project won by FUNAAB would be implemented through the Centre for Agricultural Development and Sustainable Environment, having scored 75.2 per cent in the overall evaluation score in Agriculture.

Other institutions that are also Centres of Excellence in Nigeria include University of Ibadan, which jointly won the African Centre of Excellence for Genomics of Infectious Diseases in Health with RUN; African University of Science and Technology, Abuja (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics); Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria (Centre of Excellence in Neglected Tropical Diseases and Forensic Biotechnology); the University of Jos (Phytomedicine Research and Development ); University of Benin (Centre for Excellence in Reproductive Health and Innovation) and the University of Port Harcourt (ACE Centre for Oil Field Chemicals).