Oct. 30, 2023

Prof. Promise Mebine, the Director/Chief Executive, National Mathematical Centre (NMC), has called for the Centre to be converted to ‘National University of Mathematical Sciences’.

Mebine expressed this at the sideline of a two-week workshop on foundation postgraduate course in “Time Series Analysis and Application” in Abuja.

He told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that converting the Centre to university of mathematical sciences would aid the teaching and learning of mathematics related courses.

According to Mebine, the centre was established in 1988 and has 127 hectares of land with a lot of resource persons, but yet to fulfill its mandate.

He said for the centre to fulfill its mandate effectively, it has to be converted to the National University of Mathematical Sciences.

“We don’t want to run undergraduates programmes but Postgraduate degree programmes, Masters degree programmes and PhD programmes,” Mebine
said.

He explained that these programmes would be in the five programmes of the Centre namely; Mathematics, Computer Science, Theoretical Physics, Statistics and Mathematical Sciences Education.

Mebine said that measures were being taken to amend the Act of the National Mathematical Centre, adding that the proposal had been submitted to the Federal Ministry of Education to ensure realisation.

Speaking on the workshop for lecturers and researchers, he said the training was in fulfillment of its mandate to develop high-level personnel in mathematical sciences, statistics inclusive for Nigerian institutions.

Mebine therefore urged the participants to put what they have learnt into use for the betterment of the country.

Dr Awogbemi Adeyeye, the Course Coordinator, Statistics Department/Programme, NMC, said the workshop was organised to address the dearth of human resources in “Time Series Analysis in the tertiary institutions in Nigeria.

Adeyeye said the objectives of the workshop was to train and develop personnel in time series analysis at tertiary level of the educational system.

“To train participants to be able to communicate meaningfully and productively with practitioners and professionals on time series issues,” he added.

Adeyeye said that the Centre got about 460 applications but could only shortlist 25 persons due to paucity of fund, saying that the training was free.

The participants were selected from the six geopolitical zones of the country. (NAN)