The construction of the World Bank-funded Africa Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Power and Energy Development (ACE-SPED) has begun at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN).
Vice Chancellor of UNN Prof. Charles Igwe, officially flagged off the building of the proposed two-story structure on Thursday in Nsukka.
The VC appreciated the World Bank for choosing the UNN proposal above others to develop the ACE-SPED. He said that the institution will use its staff to make sure the centre’s goal of offering locally relevant answers to energy and power issues was attained.
“I’m happily flagging off the building project of the Centre, fully funded by the World Bank, I implore the contractor handling the project to complete it at the specified period.
“This is the kind of thing I like to be associated with because my administration is results-oriented,” he added.
The Center’s director, Prof. Emenike Ejiogu, was praised by the vice chancellor. According to him, she oversaw the team that produced the proposal that the World Bank chose above others from the nation.
Ejiogu said that the centre was chosen by the World Bank out of 134 submissions from Nigeria and other West African nations. Ejiogu is also the Dean of UNN’s Faculty of Engineering.
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Aim of ACE-SPED
According to him, the centre’s goal is to investigate homegrown technologies that might help West African nations with their energy and power issues.
He said that the centre now has approximately 35 international students from West African nations pursuing Masters and Ph.D. degrees.
Ejiogu assured that ”the two-story building when completed [would have] laboratories, workshop halls, lecture theatres, and office accommodations, among others.
“The centre’s mandate is to develop indigenous technology in Nigeria and West Africa, as well as create a functional problem-solving Centre of Excellence with the capacity to carry out power systems and energy development, knowledge transfer, and human capital upgrade.
“This centre started operation in UNN in 2019 and has graduated some Masters and PhD students as well as sponsored many students on scholarship and industrial attachment within and outside the country,” he noted.
The director applauded UNN-VC for giving the centre both temporary housing and space on campus where a permanent office might be built.
Ejiogu added that their research team had also identified ore from rice husk, a design for energy conversion that would aid in the production of laptop and mobile batteries, as well as Electric Insulator Ceramic with 100% local material.
“This shows that the centre has made rapid progress towards fulfilling its goal of utilising local expertise to address power and energy-related issues.
“This facility will handle this work. Recently, UNN struck a collaboration arrangement with certain Japanese enterprises to build software for them.
He said, “As promised, the office block of the facility that was marked off by the VC today would be finished within 10 months.
Prof. Owuamaeze Illoeje, emeritus professor of mechanical engineering at UNN and a member of the centre, also spoke and stated that the centre will provide solutions to Africa’s power and energy concerns.
I applaud Professor Ejiogu for securing this initiative. While I was still near the engineering faculty, he informed me of his plan to build the Africa Centre of Excellence Impact Project by submitting a proposal to the World Bank.
He had a great concept and understood how to pursue it, so I offered him all the academic, psychological, and social support he needed to succeed. I thought what he was doing was excellent.
When finished, the initiative would act as a regional centre dedicated to tackling sub-Saharan Africa’s energy and power concerns through sectoral partner engagement, teaching, and research, he added.
Monitoring of ACE-SPED project
The World Bank’s environmental and social safeguard officer, Mrs. Josephine Mbunwe, expressed satisfaction with the work completed thus far. She reaffirmed that the World Bank will keep an eye on the project to make sure that the construction was done according to plan.
Ivory Link International Nigeria Limited’s site engineer, Mr Roland Mbaitessem, promised that the building would be finished and turned over in 10 months.