UNIOSUN Receives UNESCO Research Grant

Osun State University, Osogbo has inaugurated a research team to drive the execution and implementation of its UNESCO-funded project under the International Fund for Cultural Diversity.

During the inauguration held at Ikire College of Humanities and Culture of the university, the Principal Investigator and grant holder, Olukoya Ogen, who would be supported by a 20-man research team drawn from three faculties in the university, said the institution had entered the record books as the first university in Nigeria to win such a grant.

Ogen said Uni-osun’s feat as the first Nigerian university to win a grant for such research work was officially acknowledged by the Federal Ministry of Information and Culture, saying it recently congratulated the university and expressed willingness to partner with the team members for successful execution of the project.

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He said the project, titled, ‘Youth Empowerment, Gender Mainstreaming, and Entrepreneurizing Yoruba Oral Arts for Sustainable Development in Southwest Nigeria, has three major objectives  to identify, locate and collate various aspects of Yoruba oral genres and provide formal professional training to selected youths across the southwest.

Ogen explained that the grant was worth about $100,000, with UNESCO contributing $73,077 and a counterpart funding of $27,000 both in cash and in-kind by critical stakeholders.