Executive Secretary, Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), Sonny Echono, has expressed the fund’s readiness to replicate innovation hubs projects in public universities and other higher education institutions in the country.
Echono disclosed this at the opening of TETFund Alliance for Innovative Research (TETFAIR) initiative on Wednesday in Abuja.
He said the TETFAIR programme was put in place in collaboration with Innov8 Hub, saying that the move was part of efforts to institutionalise Research and Development (R&D) in the country.
“Being a year-long programme, TETFAIR is aimed at providing unique opportunity for our academics and researchers to transform their ideas into market-driven solutions, including the development and fabrication of prototypes.“
Through the programme, selected teams of researchers and academic staff with promising ideas for innovative solutions in the programme areas of focus are being taken through a journey that combines technology and product development along with venture creation.
According to him, many Nigerians who took part in start-up programmes by Innov8 hub have recorded many breakthroughs in inventions and technology.
While declaring the TETFAIR open, Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu said the initiative would help address gaps and proffer solution that would help Nigeria meet global demands.
Adamu who was represented by the Minister of State for Education, Goodluck Opiah, “most of the countries that have emerged as global leaders have achieved this status through ingenuity and hard work of their scientists.“
“I believe that all the experiences gained would be deployed to improve and expand the frontiers of science and technology in solving real life problems,” the minister said.
“Founded by Prof Gregory Ibe and Dr Moshe Moalem, Innov8 hub in simple terms, is a midwife that helps Nigerians who are pregnant with innovative ideas, to birth their ideas into invention, nurse their invention into solution, and transform their solution into enterprise“, Communication Adviser, Innov8 Hub, Deji Ige, said.
Deji said, so far, Innova8 has helped Nigerians develop and perfect over 72 prototypes ready for commercialisation, involved in the emergence of 15 solid start-ups, working with over 150 innovators, inventors and venture creators, among whom are academics and researchers.
