Unizik: Royal Academy of Engineering Project Enters 2nd Phase, as 50 Students Receive Training
By Gabriel Chy Alonta
The Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka on Monday, October 16, 2023, in its Business School, started the execution of the phase of a £100,000 Grant it received from Royal Academy Of Engineering, United Kingdom to research in the area of electrical engineering.
The project, titled, “Catalyzing the Employability and Entrepreneurial Impact of Nigerian Graduate Engineers in the Electricity Industry as a Strategic Way to Improve Access to Electricity in Nigeria”, was awarded by Higher Education Partnerships in sub-saharan Africa (HEP SSA) 22/24 Programme.
The second phase of the project which commenced with training sessions for the selected 50 students drawn across five tertiary institutions in South-East Nigeria, took place at the Unizik Business School. Recall also that the first phase of the project took place on Friday, December 2, 2022.
Addressing participants via zoom, the Programme Officer, Africa Programmes of the Royal Academy of Engineering, Mrs. Kirsty Chishti, said the project was targeted at filling the identified lacunae in sub-saharan Africa such as a lack of skilled and experienced engineers, a loss of talent to other countries, weak engineering institutions, as well as low levels of investment and national standards.
Chishti, who revealed that the academy launched three programmes to respond to the identified engineering capacity needs with the aim of driving development, reminded her audience that engineers have a vital role to play in creating systems and solutions to address the climate crisis and support more sustainable use and management of natural resources.
In a remark, the Team Lead and Deputy Director, Unizik Business School, Prof. Chinedu Onyeizugbe, urged participants to conduct themselves with decorum throughout the 6-day training, while remarking the importance of the exercise for the trainees and Nigeria at large. He also thanked The Royal Academy of Engineering, United Kingdom, and other partners including Nottingham Trent University, V-lab Limited, Nigerian Higher Education, as well as Industry and professional partners.
Onyeizugbe lamented that people using power in the country rely on erratic public power supply which, according to him, could spell doom and disconnection from civilization for businesses, adding, “The project is aimed at improving engineering capacity in Sub-Saharan Africa by enhancing knowledge, skills, capacity and employability of African engineering graduates; build on research and innovation capacity of the students and stimulate ties with industry to increase the scale of impact”.
This writer reliably gathered that Nnamdi Azikiwe University is one of just six universities in Africa that attracted the Grant through Prof. Chinedu Onyeizugbe leading Engr. Ugochukwu Ifediora, a student and CEO/MD, Fedironics Group. This is in addition to partners in the project.
The second stage of the project is also expected to attract experts such as Prof. Amin Al-Habaibeh, Director of Product Innovation Center (PIC) and Head of iSBET Research Group, Nottingham Trent University, as well as Engr. Proveen Chorghad, MD-CEO, Enugu Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC).
