FG Unveils ₦365m National Laureate Prize for Academic Excellence
The Federal Government has unveiled a ₦365 million annual prize to reward outstanding research, innovation and intellectual excellence in Nigeria’s tertiary institutions.
Announced by the Federal Ministry of Education on Wednesday in Abuja, the Tertiary Institutions National Laureate Prize will recognise exceptional undergraduate dissertations, Master’s theses and doctoral research with commercial, industrial or developmental potential.
Minister of Education, Dr Tunji Alausa, said the programme is aimed at repositioning universities, polytechnics, monotechnics and colleges of education as hubs for research, enterprise and problem-solving.
“Nigeria has exceptional intellectual capacity across our tertiary institutions, but outstanding research and innovations require greater recognition and support to achieve national impact,” Alausa said.
The ₦365m prize pool will be distributed across three main categories and six thematic areas. The awards cover the best undergraduate dissertation, the best Master’s thesis and the best doctoral thesis.
In addition, six National Laureate Excellence Awards of ₦30 million each will be given across Engineering and Technology, Medicine and Health Sciences, Arts and Social Sciences, Agriculture, Law, and Teaching Innovation.
The Medicine and Health Sciences award will be known as the Dr Stella Adadevoh Prize for Medicine and Medical Innovation. It honours the late physician credited with containing Nigeria’s 2014 Ebola outbreak after quarantining the index case.
The initiative builds on the June inauguration of the Tertiary Institutions National Laureate Committee, chaired by Emeritus Prof. Abubakar Sambo, President of the Nigerian Academy of Science.
The committee is responsible for developing eligibility criteria, managing nominations, overseeing independent adjudication and administering the annual prize fund. The inaugural National Laureate Awards are scheduled for November 2026.
Alausa described the programme at its June launch as “a deliberate investment in Nigeria’s young intellectual capital” designed to celebrate knowledge and strengthen the country’s research commercialisation ecosystem.
According to the ministry, the prize will promote research commercialisation, preserve Nigeria’s intellectual output and deepen collaboration between academia, industry and government.
The Federal Government said the initiative aligns with President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda to give academic excellence national recognition and encourage solutions to Nigeria’s development challenges.
“The programme is expected to strengthen the link between research institutions and industry by supporting academic work that can be commercialised or applied to national problems,” the ministry stated.
Through the award, government hopes tertiary institutions will play a stronger role in driving innovation while giving Nigeria’s leading academic minds greater recognition.