ACE-SPED Core edifice inaugurated at UNN

The Vice Chancellor of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) Prof. Charles Igwe, on Friday inaugurated the two-storey core building of World Bank-funded Africa Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Power and Energy Development (ACE-SPED).

ACE-SPED is a World Bank-assisted Higher Education Programme, supported by the French Development Agency (AFD) domiciled at UNN.

Igwe commended Prof. Emenike Ejiogu, the Director of the Centre who also attracted the World Bank grant for his good leadership qualities and dedication to work.

“I am happy to inaugurate this project, it is one of the projects I am inaugurating to mark the end of my successful tenure.

“I commend Ejiogu for attracting the World Bank-funded Africa Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Power and Energy Development to UNN which is aimed at providing solutions to the problems of energy in the country in particular and Africa in general,” he said.

Speaking, Ejiogu, who is also the Dean Faculty of Engineering, UNN said that the Centre was selected by the World Bank among 134 proposals from Nigeria and other West African countries

“The Centre’s mandate is to develop indigenous technology in Nigeria and West Africa, as well as create a functional problem-solving Centre of Excellence with the capacity to carry out power systems and energy development, knowledge transfer, and human capital upgrade.

”The two-story building has provisions for laboratories, workshop halls, lecture theatres, and office accommodations, among others.

“This Centre started operation in UNN in 2019 and has graduated some Masters and Ph.D. students as well as sponsored many students on scholarship and industrial attachment within and outside the country,” he said.

The Director commended the Vice-Chancellor for providing the centre land for the core building, laying the foundation stone, and inauguration of the completed building.

“As the Director of this Centre, I will continue to work hard and ensure the

dedication to work by the staff so as to achieve the goals and mandates of the Centre. 

“Already, our research team had produced Electric Insulator Ceramic with 100 per cent local content and discovered ore from rice husk, a design for energy conversion that would help to produce laptop and cellphone batteries,” he said.