The Federal Ministry of Education has unveiled the Tertiary Institutions National Laureate Prize, a new national initiative designed to identify, celebrate and reward outstanding academic research, innovation and intellectual excellence across Nigeria’s tertiary institutions.
Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, announced the initiative during a press briefing held alongside members of the Nigeria Education Repository and Databank (NERD) National Laureate team, describing the prize as a major step towards repositioning Nigeria’s education system around knowledge, innovation and measurable national impact.
Backed by an initial annual prize fund of ₦365 million, the National Laureate Prize will offer some of the country’s biggest academic awards, including ₦35 million for the Undergraduate Star Prize, ₦50 million for the Master’s Star Prize and ₦100 million for the Doctoral Star Prize.
Another ₦180 million will be shared among 15 Thematic Excellence Prize winners, with each category carrying a ₦12 million award.
The competition is open to students and researchers from every accredited university, polytechnic and college of education in Nigeria, creating a nationwide platform for discovering exceptional minds and research with the potential to address pressing national challenges.
The thematic awards will cover critical areas including Engineering and Technology, Medicine and Health Sciences, Arts and Social Sciences, Agriculture, Law and Teaching Innovation.
A special Dr. Stella Adadevoh Prize for Medicine and Medical Innovation has also been introduced to honour the late physician’s courage, professional excellence and contribution to Nigeria.
According to Alausa, the prize will be jointly implemented by the Federal Ministry of Education and NERD through a transparent, competitive and merit-driven process, with academic excellence, originality and measurable impact forming the core of the selection process.
He said the initiative aligns with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, particularly the administration’s emphasis on human capital development, skills, research and innovation as engines for economic growth and national transformation.
The minister stressed that the objective goes beyond producing graduates with certificates, noting that Nigeria needs an education system capable of producing solutions, innovations, enterprises and tangible national value.
The National Laureate Prize could also transform the way students approach academic research, particularly final-year projects, master’s dissertations and doctoral research, by creating a powerful incentive for students to pursue work capable of solving real-world problems.
Alausa described the initiative as an intentional redirection and reprogramming of Nigeria’s educational system, expressing optimism that it would help the country identify some of its brightest young minds and create pathways for their talents and innovations to be harnessed for national development.
With hundreds of millions of naira committed annually to rewarding excellence, the new prize marks a potentially significant shift from an education culture focused primarily on certificates to one that places research, creativity, problem-solving and innovation at the centre of national development.
