Engineers facilitate handshake between academia and industry to produce food processors
The Nigerian Institution of Mechanical Engineers (NIMechE) has brought synergy between industries and the academia for increased local fabrication of machines to boost manufacturing and curb agricultural wastages.
Its National Chairperson, Dr Funmilade Akingbagbohun made the assertion in Lagos on Tuesday when she spoke with the News Reporter.
NIMechE is a division of the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE).
She said NIMechE was already running a programme called Industry/Academic parley to enhance collaboration since the academia is tailored towards research and development, while industry is for manufacturing.
She explained that the institution placed emphasis on the parley so as to bridge the gap between academia and manufacturing and bring the two together for commercialisation of inventions.
The chairperson said the institution had been able to get young engineers to design and fabricate several machines during competitions organised for secondary schools and tertiary institutions.
Akingbagbohun said students were usually given opportunities to design prototypes of their inventions for mass production.
She cited the example of toilet seats for people with disabilities currently being produced in commercial quantities.
She said the institution had already secured an acre of land on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway for the construction of its training academy to groom young engineers in researches and designs.
“Another thing our institution is doing is creating opportunities for drying of foodstuffs. A member has produced a machine capable of drying foodstuffs for packaging.
“Agricultural wastage is one of the challenges that we have in Nigeria making food security to be requiring priority attention. A lot of tomatoes and onions produced by farmers, for instance, rot away.
“We have produced a machine; we are trying to commercialise the machine in such a way that it will be useful for farmers to preserve their produce,’’ she said.
Akingbagbohun also told News Reporter that a youth corps member, Mr Ahmed Ayinla, produced a food dryer in 2022 which was already being used in Lekki, Lagos State.
Ayinla won the NIMechE innovation challenge during the COVID-19 pandemic and also produced a mobile hand washing machine already being sold in the market.
