The Former Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC), Professor Peter Okebukola, has called for a joint National Quantum and AI Education Fund to be created by the NUC and the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund).
Professor Okebukola said “Nigeria must urgently prepare a workforce capable of using next-generation computing technologies.”
He said this while delivering the convocation lecture at the Kwara State University (KWASU), Malete, Kwara State, North Central Nigeria.
Competitive Grants
According to him, the fund should provide competitive grants to universities that demonstrate clear commitment to artificial intelligence and quantum research, stressing that global technological shifts will reshape nearly one billion jobs within the next decade.
Okebukola pushed further for Nigerian universities to establish a Quantum Futures Institute (QFI) as an interdisciplinary hub where experts from engineering, sciences, humanities and social sciences can jointly tackle national challenges through quantum-thinking approaches.
The former NUC boss expressed concern over Nigeria’s poor research investment profile, noting that the country spends about 0.2% of its GDP on research below the African average of 0.5% and far behind nations that commit 3% to 4%.
He urged the federal and state governments to increase R&D funding and introduce tax incentives for private companies that sponsor university research or establish endowed research chairs.
Okebukola advised the NUC to design a dedicated accreditation framework for emerging technology programmes, arguing that such fields evolve too quickly for traditional evaluation methods.
He said universities should have more flexibility under the 30 percent institutional addition permissible in the CCMAS.
For the private sector, he recommended the creation of industry–university collaboration hubs in all geopolitical zones where companies can table real-world problems and universities can produce research-based solutions that can be commercialised.
Digital infrastructure
He also urged companies to support digital infrastructure on campuses and deepen curriculum, internship and sabbatical partnerships.
Okebukola said universities must train students and staff to move away from passive learning towards active knowledge creation, stressing that the quantum era demands comfort with uncertainty, creativity and interdisciplinary thinking.
He urged KWASU and other universities to roll out AI literacy programmes for all students and to form at least three global partnerships with leading universities in quantum computing and AI.
In his remarks, Vice Chancellor Professor Shaykh-Luqman Jimoh said KWASU places high priority on transformative ideas and collaborations that produce societal value, describing Okebukola as a scholar whose work continues to shape the evolution of higher education.
Olusola Akintonde