A masters student of the Africa Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Power and Energy Development (ACE-SPED), University of Nigeria Nsukka, Mr. Jerry Chinemerem Ozoude, won the overall first prize in STEM category in the Student Innovation Research Award (SIRA) held in Banjul Gambia on Friday 18th November, 2022. The SIRA Award is a flagship reward scheme of the World Bank for exceptional research outputs by students under the ACE impact project for West and Central Africa. The recipient graduated from the Department of Materials and Metallurgical Engineering of UNN and is currently studying for his Master’s in Sustainable Energy Materials at ACE-SPED. The research work titled ‘ Design, optimization, and fabrication of perovskite solar cells for low-cost manufacturing of solar panels in Africa’ came overall to in STEM category. Students from over 44 institutions from over 11 countries competed for awards which were presented by the Vice President of the Republic of the Gambia Prof. Badara A. Joof. The Vice Chancellor congratulates Mr. Ozoude, his Supervisors, ACE-SPED, and indeed the university of Nigeria for this achievement