Prof. Onuegbu Ugwu, Dean, Faculty of Engineering and Technology, Federal University, Ebonyi says collaborative efforts among intellectuals and institutions will ensure sustained innovative development in the country.
Ugwu said this on Tuesday in Abuja following the recently developed car “Lion Ozumba 551’’ by the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN).
Lion Ozumba 551 is an electric five-seater car which was unveiled on July 8 and produced by the Mechatronic Research Group in the Faculty of Engineering of the institution.
The car was named after the original initiator of the project and the immediate past Vice Chancellor of the school, Prof. Benjamin Ozumba.
According to Ugwu, producing the car was a laudable effort which should be emulated by other institutions.
“Producing Lion Ozumba by UNN is an encouraging innovation tending towards launching the country into the League of Nations with indigenous products.
“In the case of Lion Ozumba 551, it is a prototype which the developers should look at its sustainable means, by way of sourcing its parts locally and other requirements.
“For such efforts to be sustained, we should be thinking of an intellectual hub where experts or institutions collaborate to ensure such innovations are continued.
“One institution or an individual may not have the whole capacity to develop and sustain such innovation.
“We will therefore need a strategy to have more robust and sustainable innovation,’’ Ugwu said.
The don also said that innovations and industrial development were parts of the Sustsinable Development Goal (SDG) agenda for 2030.
He added that the country needed to make holistic efforts toward ensuring that the goals are achieved for inclusive national and global development.
Ugwu said that the SDGs’ industrialisation, innovation can be attained with conscious investments in Research and Development (R&D) in tertiary schools
