The newly appointed Director General (DG) of the National Mathematical Centre (NMC), Prof Promise Mebine, has said the centre is set to adequately respond to the obvious decline in the production of specialists in the mathematical sciences.
Prof Mebine said the centre by its mandate would bridge the intellectual gap in the production of adequate and qualified academic manpower for the country in the mathematical sciences.
In a statement, the spokesman of the centre, Dr Onyekachi Njoku, said the DG had pointed out the need for the academic programmes of the centre to reinvigorate its academic activities in order to meet the yearnings of the academia and industries in the country.
According to the statement, Prof Mebine stressed his resolve to ensure the mathematical sciences library which served as a resource hub for teaching, learning and research was made up-to-date to meet the resource needs of the mathematical sciences in the academic community.
He also pledged to strengthen the existing relationship with the Nigerian Mathematical Society (NMS) in the development of mathematics in the country.
Prof Mebine stated this when the officials of NMS, led by its President, Prof Bashir Ali, paid him a courtesy visit at the centre.
He challenged the society to design programmes with incentives to attract students who would be ready to study mathematics from first degree to PhD.
The DG urged the society to support the centre in its effort to overcome the challenges and phobia associated with the teaching, learning and research in mathematics.
Earlier, Prof Ali said with the increasing rate at which new universities were being accredited and developed there was the need for more sound mathematicians and mathematics teachers.
