The Vice-Chancellor of the Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka, Professor Charles Esimone, has inaugurated the Grant secured 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.

Queen Anigbogu completes reports that the Vice-Chancellor explained that the project has identified what is at the core of development in Nigeria and Africa in general.

 

He noted that Nnamdi Azikiwe University was founded on the motto of discipline, excellence and self-reliance and its vision is to bridge the gap within its 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, Professor 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 challenges.

 

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.

In her remarks, Programme Manager from the Royal Academy of Engineering, Miss Melinda San Martin, pointed out the importance of Electricity in everyday life and explained the rationale behind the project, noting that with Nigeria’s over two hundred million population and inability to produce adequate electricity supply, there is need to train graduates with the needed skills to respond to such problems ensuring that the society is working for everyone.

 

Also speaking a university Teacher Professor Okey Okechukwu while commending UNIZIK for being one out of the six that won the grant assured the partners that they have the right partner.