Business School of the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Anambra State has launched the Higher Education Partnerships in Sub-Saharan Africa (HEP SSA) ’22/24 programme established and funded by Royal Academy of Engineering, United Kingdom.

The £100,000 grant award is an international collaboration project targeted at building on research and innovation capacity of engineering students of higher education institutions in Sub-Saharan Africa and stimulating ties with industry to increase the scale of impact.

The program titled: ‘Catalysing 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 also aimed at improving engineering capacity in Sub-Saharan Africa by enhancing the knowledge, skills, capacity and employability of African engineering graduates.

Speaking while launching the project, Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Charles Esimone explained that the project is at the core of development in Nigeria and Africa with prevalent key human capacity issues.

He expressed optimism that the project would help to bridge the gap between the town and gown to enable students become self-reliant after graduation.

“We assure the project benefactors that the university will continue to provide enabling environment and supportive atmosphere to ensure a fruitful collaboration.

“We have never failed, and we will not fail in this project because it is not in our character”, he assured.

Earlier, team lead, Dr. Onyeizugbe said the project was informed by a renewed emphasis on production for export, as well as to address structural issues necessary to stimulate the economy and drive the much desired diversification and industrialization efforts.

He said, “The grant award is aimed at improving engineering capacity in Sub-Saharan Africa by enhancing the knowledge, skills, capacity and employability of African engineering graduates; build on the research and innovation capacity of engineering students of higher education institutions in Sub-Saharan Africa and stimulate ties with industry to increase the scale of impact.

“Following Nigeria’s grossly insufficient electric power generation and even more abysmal transmission and distribution statistics, it remains commonplace and in fact, is now accepted as conventional wisdom, for businesses of all kinds and sizes to have alternate power supply arrangements, usually in form of petrol or diesel-powered electricity generating sets, which they often have to put to use in order to keep their doors open and continue providing their goods and services.”

Lamenting poor and non-existent access to electricity for large part of the nation’s 200 million strong population, Onyeizugbe expressed fears that Nigeria’s erratic public power supply could spell doom and disconnection from civilisation for businesses.

“With rising costs of goods across the board due to spiraling inflation, even those who have electricity generating sets for home power supply may soon be forced to decide between eating and seeing at night. Others do not even have the luxury of such options”, he decried.

Assuring judicious use of the grant, Onyeizugbe called on Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Bank of Industry (BoI), Anambra Small Business Agency (ASBA) and other bodies to explore the possibility of gaining access to funds for achieving the objective of making self-employed entrepreneurs of Nigerian Graduate Engineers.

UBS Director, Prof. Emma Okoye said the programme was supported by the Anglo-American Group Foundation and the UK Government, stressing that the pilot scheme had been successfully tested under the Enriching Engineering Education Programme (EEEP) in 2016.

He commended Onyeizugbe and Ifediora for their efforts in driving the research endeavour, expressing hope that the project would address numerous engineering skills deficit in Africa. (The Nation)

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