Research and innovation in focus as new Centre for Business Development takes off
Nigeria’s premier university is showcasing and promoting its innovative endeavors through research demonstrating to prospective investors the commercial possibilities and opportunities of prototypes and technological fabrications made possible through dedicated research over the past 61 years of existence.
Addressing the inaugural University of Nigeria Business Promotion and Products Exhibition Fair at Nsukka, Enugu State, Southeast Nigeria, the university’s Vice Chancellor, Professor Charles Arizechukwu Igwe noted that the array of new products on display at the fair was an “eloquent testimony of the innovative research spirit that is currently driving the research wheel of the institution.
He expressed the hope that subsequent Fairs of the University would provide the transactional interface for mutual benefits between the University and the industry. With the advent of virtual technology in a world of Covid-19 Pandemic, said the university leader, the benefits of emerging virtual fairs in the presence of social distancing and no contact could be attractive and encouraged businesses to tap into the marketing opportunities provided by such outings.
Prof. Igwe maintained that the benefits of trade shows or trade fairs or products exhibitions could not be quantified as demonstrated from the history as “places of opportunities for business growth and mercantile expansion.”
The Director the University of Nigeria Centre for Business Development (UNCBD), Professor Nnanyelugo Okoro could not hide his elation for pulling such a successful maiden edition of the University of Nigeria Business Promotion and Products Exhibition Fair.
UNCBD is a new idea within the spectrum of the University’s business schemes, he explained, to assist the University Administration in making the University a Centre of Excellence through the generation of globally competitive programs and products.
According to Prof. Okoro, the target of UNCBD is to design, improve and sustain a cluster of innovatively different and workable creative solutions that would make a client’s business engagement a rewarding experience, especially in an environment of Covid-19 Pandemic.
He described the Fair as timely because it seeks to create synergy to between the academia and the industry by publicly exposing the patents/inventions and products of the University to investors who are expected to assist in commercializing them. The theme of the Fair ‘Promoting Business through Innovations and Research’ is also appropriate, Okoro insisted, because of the current push to commercialize university research in the face of dwindling government funding. The eight-day fair featured presentations from different departments in the university and displays of products from an array of industries including small and medium scale factories and farmers.
