The Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission (NUC), Prof. Abdullahi Ribadu, has called on Nigerian universities to adopt academic entrepreneurship and innovation as central to their mandate. He emphasized that this approach is critical to producing graduates capable of driving the nation's economic growth.
Conference on Academic Entrepreneurship
Ribadu made the call at the international conference on academic entrepreneurship, knowledge and technology transfer, organized by the NUC in collaboration with German universities and development partners. Represented by the Director of Research, Innovation and Information Technology, Mallam Lawal Faruk, Ribadu stated that universities worldwide are expected to move beyond traditional roles of teaching and research to become centers of creativity, enterprise, and social transformation.
The future of higher education, he noted, depends on its capacity to prepare graduates for a rapidly changing world by equipping them with entrepreneurial, digital, and critical-thinking skills. This conviction informed the NUC's development and implementation of the Core Curriculum and Minimum Academic Standards (CCMAS).
Core Curriculum and Minimum Academic Standards
Ribadu explained that the CCMAS framework emphasizes learner-centered and competency-based education. “The framework seeks to equip students not only with disciplinary knowledge, but also with entrepreneurial skills, digital competencies, critical thinking and adaptability required in today’s workplace,” he said.
He stressed the need to strengthen collaboration between universities and industry, noting that the success of modern universities will be measured by their ability to transform ideas into innovation and research into societal impact. Achieving this goal requires stronger partnerships among academia, government, industry, and innovators, as well as institutional cultures that encourage creativity and reward innovation.
International Partnerships
The NUC chief also highlighted that the commission's collaboration with institutions in Germany demonstrates the importance of international partnerships in building innovation ecosystems. Such partnerships can enhance global competitiveness while addressing local and national challenges.
Chris Vilas-Mote, Programme Officer at the German Academic Exchange Service Regional Office in Ghana, reiterated the organization's commitment to supporting partnerships between Germany and Nigeria in education, research, and innovation. He explained that the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD) is one of the world's largest scholarship organizations, supporting university collaborations, scholarships, and innovation initiatives aimed at empowering young researchers and entrepreneurs.
Vilas-Mote cited the Falling Walls Lab competition as one of DAAD's platforms for identifying and supporting innovative ideas among students and researchers. According to him, many Nigerian students already possess entrepreneurial mindsets but require greater institutional support to transform their ideas into sustainable enterprises.
Keynote Presentation
In a keynote presentation, Prof Harald Von-Korflesch of the University of Koblenz advocated for a more structured approach to building entrepreneurial universities. He said institutions must move beyond offering stand-alone entrepreneurship courses to embedding entrepreneurship at the core of their institutional ecosystems.
He listed professional mentorship, industry linkages, innovation support structures, and technology commercialisation as essential components of that ecosystem. Von-Korflesch noted that while many universities are making progress in entrepreneurship education, greater efforts are needed to convert research outputs into viable businesses and startups capable of generating jobs and economic value.
He emphasized the importance of strengthening mechanisms for knowledge and technology transfer to ensure that research conducted in universities directly contributes to national development and industrial growth.
Conference Outcomes
The conference brought together university administrators, researchers, policymakers, development agencies, and international partners to explore strategies for advancing entrepreneurship, innovation, and technology transfer in higher education institutions.
