McPherson University Don Wins British Grant

The Dean, College of Postgraduate Studies, McPherson University, Professor Kenneth Chukwuemeka Nwoko, has won the British Library Board’s [BLB] grant for Endangered Archive Programme 2021/2022.
The BLB announced the McPherson University don as the winner of the grant recently.
The programme was supported by the Arcadia Fund (Arcadia) and the grant funds is worth £51,960 (Fifty-One Thousand, Nine Thousand and Sixty pounds sterling).
The funds are to be applied in the digitisation and cataloguing of the project entitled “Rescue and organizing church, merchant and burials records of Lokoja, Northern Nigeria, 1841-1960”.
According to Professor Nwoko, the project would include digitization and documentation of three kinds of endangered materials in Lokoja area of Nigeria dated between 1840 and 1950. These include; “the ecclesiastical record of the Lokoja Anglican and Catholic Church; the commercial record of the early European trading companies; the burial records of European/ African missionaries, soldiers, and administrators refracted from the epitaphs in the colonial cemeteries and those housed in the National Commission for Museum and Monument store (NCMM)”.
Others include “private/ official correspondence, Judicial/ Prison reports”. These materials provide unique information that do not exist elsewhere.
The project which was recommended by the International Advisory Panel is to be executed between 12 months, beginning from August, 2022 to August, 2023.
The BLB said in addition to administering the fund, McPherson University would become the Local Archival Partner to the British Library Board.
Meanwhile, the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Francis Adegbaye Igbasan has commended the grant winner, Professor Nwoko, on the feat which he described as ‘defining and historic’.
He described Professor Nwoko as one of the best in his field and assured that the University would render all necessary support at different phases of the project.
The VC thanked the don for consistently adding value to the University since 2012. He added that the grant winner is a worthy ambassador who would continue to impact life positively.
Professor Igbasan expressed optimism that the out coming of the research would further position McPherson University as an Institution to reckon with in research and advancement.
Professor Nwoko, who is currently a member of the University Governing Council, thanked the Vice-Chancellor and the University Management for creating environment that made research pleasurable.