The Vice-Chancellor, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Prof Charles Esimone has officially launched the grant won by UNIZIK Business School from the Royal Academy of Engineering, for Higher Education Partnership in Sub-Saharan Africa Programme.
The project “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” is one of the only six successful applications in the whole of Africa during the current grant cycle.
The programme aims to address the Engineering skills deficit in Africa Sub Sahara as well as showcase the role of engineering in driving inclusive economic development in the region.
In his remarks, the Vice-Chancellor, Prof Esimone explained that the project has identified what is at the core of development in Nigeria and Africa in general.
He noted that UNIZIK is founded on the motto of discipline, excellence and self-reliance and their vision is to bridge the gap within their community and beyond thanking the Royal Academy for choosing them while assuring the partners that they are a very serious minded institution and will deliver on the project.
According to the Director, UNIZIK Business School, Prof.Emma Okoye, by forming and strengthening synergy between academia and industry, the programme aims to enable the higher education system in Sub-Saharan Africa to produce engineers with requisite skills and knowledge that are required to meet the needs of industry and to tackle local challenge.
For the Team Lead, Dr Chinedu Onyeizugbe, of the myriad of issues facing the Nigerian Electricity sector, a very critical area of insufficient and inadequately skilled human resources that the Grant Awarding body, the United Kingdom Royal Academy of Engineering in partnership with UNIZIK Business School aims to ensure that the higher education system in Sub-Saharan Africa produces engineers with the skills and knowledge required to meet the needs of industry, tackle local challenges and address the Engineering skills shortage in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Dr Onyeizugbe said in line with the stipulations of the grant awarding body, the awardees will work with the UNIZIK Business School as the hub, United Kingdom partners, Teesside University of Middlesbrough, V Lab Limited, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University, Igbariam, Abia State Polytechnic and Federal Polytechnic, Nekede and others.
In her remarks, an official from the Royal Academy of Engineering, UK, Teesside University, Ms Melinda Sai Martin, pointed out the importance of Electricity in every day life, saying that the rationale behind the project, with Nigeria’s over two hundred million population and inability to produce adequate electricity supply, is to train graduates with the needed skills to respond to such problems ensuring that the society is working for everyone.
Also speaking, a university don, Prof Okey Okechukwu while thanking UNIZIK for being one out of the six that won the grant assured the partners that they have the right partner.
Official launching of the grant formed the highpoint of the occasion.
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