The chairman of the Research Fund of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund and member of the board,

Dr. Tarilah Tebepah (L) and  Prof. Olusegun Adewoye.

The chairman of the Research Fund of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund and member of the board, Dr. Tarilah Tebepah, said that the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI), should be encouraged and supported.

He stated this when he paid a courtesy/facility visit to the agency headquarters, Abuja. Dr. Tebepah was conducted round the facilities by Dr. Yusuf Sanya and Engr. Wole Olaniyan with the High Power Computing laboratory as the first port of call.

 Dr. Sanya, who developed a wind blade turbine in low speed velocity regime using the Comsol Multiphysics soft ware in the agency took  him through the process of the development of the switf blade,  noted that there are only  five os such HPC laboratory in Afica, three in NASENI and one each in Ghana and South Africa.

Dr. Tebepah, who was impressed with the development of the wind blade noted that it was indeed a well done project, but, however advised that “There is need to do the pilot scheme so that industries can come in”.

The chairman of the Research Board was later conducted to the Virtual Manufacturing Laboratory (VML), where component parts the are designed, stress analysis and material selection are done before the work is sent to the appropriate Computer Numerical Control (CNC) machine for precision and mass production. He was thereafter taken to the reverse engineering unit where the CNC lathe machine is housed.

Prof. Olusegun Adewoye, Director-General/Chief  Executive,  in a brief chat with Dr. Tebepah noted that the agency is made up of crop of young engineers from all parts  of the country who have something to offer the country technologically.

Henry  Ukwadia Information Officer in the agency quoted Prof Adewoye as saying, “Dr. Yusuf, the young man that developed the wind turbineis the desk officer for catch them young and we are training a lot of them. NASENI has so much to offer. In fact, we are the centre for Small Hydro Power (SHP) and we have equally trained a lot of people in that wise and willing to train more people who will be willing to join to mover the the country forward”.

The Director-General/Chief Executive also stated that the agency would set mini foundries in all the local government areas of the the country, which he said would, “Form the basis of industrialisation”.

He intimated Dr. Tebepah on the solar panel plant at Karshi which has started production in earnest and has also been over subscribed. “The core competence is here, we have proved the idea, the private sector should come and get involved, that is why our motto remains Ask us First.  He, therefore, stated that government should be earning money from the solar panel, while he emphasised that “Government has business in business and should as such, put money in business”.

Dr. Tebepah commended him and his team of young engineers for the great work. “What I have seen on ground is impressive, what you are doing  is amazing”.

Base on the agency’s relationship with various universities across the country and the academic training it offers,  he advised that it should put up a proposal and promised that “The Education Trust Fund will definitely look at your request in areas of assisting NASENI in order to continue with the good work it is doing”.

To accentuate his unalloyed support for the agency, he said, “We are interested in the pilot scheme programme and after  this visit, we will be receiving proposals from you, the Tertiary Fund has its mandate which is stipulated by law, however, we will look at it positively and offer our support because I am very delighted with what you are doing doing and you should keep it up”.