The Nigerian Society of Engineers has unveiled its Smart Innovation Hub to foster productivity, networking and commercialisation of research works by members and stakeholders.
Speaking at the event on Wednesday in Abuja, the President, NSE, Tasiu Gidari-Wudil, said that the hub was conceived in 2016 (tel:2016), to see how to empower the Nigerian engineer on the expectations of the country.
According to him, the innovation hub is where the ideas will come, be developed and commercialized, adding that most of the research work in our universities is not commercialised.
‘What we want is from the conception of the idea to the product so that Nigeria can take its rightful position in technology.
”This building has been built and we need to make sure that inside the building is a show of technology.
“Today we are launching this hub we have all the components, we are going to have virtual offices,” he said.
He added that members were finding it difficult to have offices due to lack of office space.
”Our young engineers with little amount can come and take the virtual office here.
“Do their business and with all the conditions we attach to it and it will show the acceptance of the Nigerian public and the world.
”They can be contacted here and have a physical meeting here but it has to be well coordinated and planned.”
Gidari-Wudil further stated that because it was virtual, the offices could be as many as one million offices and all members could have their own office spaces.
He said that it was a very good place for business because all security measures would be put in place to ensure that no one is defrauded.
Speaking on NSE’s agenda setting for the Bola Tinubu administration, the NSE boss disclosed that he was happy the President had come with his agenda and two of the agenda were digital skills and technical vocational education.
“This hub is already designed to do that. We have training week where skills can be acquired in engineering practice and of course, we have digital skills to be harnessed by our members, AI, Internet of Things and all of that.
“One of our members has developed a kit for training in schools which was usually bought from outside We have developed it here we will see to the deployment of those kits to our universities and polytechnics.
“And this hub will not work alone, we have signed an agreement MoU with other hubs. If we don’t have a particular research item we go to other hubs and do it and come and aggregate it here that is why we have an aggregator.
“The aggregator means that all the intellectual properties will be aggregated there, all those copyrights and people will be given the chance to go through them and sharpen their ideas,” he added.
Meanwhile, the Keynote Speaker of the occasion, the Managing Director, of Wema Bank, Moruf Oseni, said the initiative of the hub was crucial as it was timely.
“The programme is aimed at empowering young entrepreneurs with the relevant digital skills and knowledge to thrive in the digital space and will cut across software engineering and user experience design.
“Product development, cyber security, data analytics, machine learning, financial management and leadership training.
“I hold unwavering confidence that the NSE SMART Innovation Hub Project will play a pivotal role in helping Nigeria embrace the digital future, and serve as a sanctuary for engineers and professionals to collaborate and innovate.
“It shall also offer training and resources to facilitate the adoption of digital technologies within businesses and organizations, ” he said.
Oseni, therefore, pledged his bank’s support for the establishment of the hub.
