• Shettima, Otti, UNDP Launch Nigeria’s First Manu-Tech UniPod at MOUAU, Umudike
Boniface Okoro in Umuahia and Kuni Tyessi in Abuja
The federal government says its vision is to transform Nigerian universities into innovation ecosystems that will drive industry, enterprise, and national prosperity. Vice President Kashim Shettima stated this on Monday, during the formal launch of Nigeria’s first Manufacturing Technology University Innovation Pod, Manu-Tech UniPod, at Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike (MOUAU), Abia State.
Shettima, represented by Minister of Education, Dr. Olatunji Alausa, said the inauguration signalled, “Nigeria can no longer afford to separate education from production, research from enterprise, or knowledge from national prosperity.”
He said the project aligned with President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda and the target of building a $1 trillion Nigerian economy by 2030.
He stated, “The launch of this ManuTech Innovation Pod is, therefore, not the end of a project. It is the beginning of a national movement, a movement where a university becomes an innovation ecosystem, where research creates industries, where education creates productivity, where undergraduates become creators of wealth.”
Describing Manu-Tech as a “strategic investment in Nigeria’s future,” the vice president said universities must evolve beyond teaching and research to become hubs for enterprise development, technology transfer, and industrial competitiveness.
“The university of the future must produce innovators, entrepreneurs, inventors, manufacturers, and employers of labour. The university must become a workplace of industries,” Shettima said.
He explained that UniPod connected research laboratories directly with manufacturing enterprises by integrating artificial intelligence, advanced manufacturing, agro-processing, digital design, industrial automation, and entrepreneurship into one ecosystem.
Shettima said Abia was chosen because Aba had earned international recognition as one of Africa’s most dynamic manufacturing clusters.
He stated, “This innovation path bridges the gap. It connects the ingenuity of Aba with the research excellence of MOUAU. It links classrooms with factories, researchers with entrepreneurs, students with investors, ideas with markets.”
In his keynote address, Abia State Governor, Dr. Alex Otti, said siting the Manu-Tech UniPod in Abia reflected the institutional faith UNDP and the federal government had in the state as an engine of growth.
Otti stated that Umudike’s proximity to Aba and Ariaria International Market attested to the sincerity and potential for success of the project.
He said Manu-Tech was a product of the National Innovation and Digital Transformation Partnership Programme (NIDTPP), a joint initiative of the federal government, TETFund, and UNDP, designed to transform tertiary institutions into technical hubs for talent development.
“The projection is that over the next few years, 500,000 students and researchers will be equipped with technological skills to transform their intellectual output into products and services for regional and global markets,” the governor said.
United Nations Assistant Secretary-General and UNDP Regional Director for Africa, Her Excellency Ahunna Eziakonwa, described the Innovation Pod as the world’s largest initiative to support Africa’s startup ecosystem.
Eziakonwa said UNDP aimed to mobilise $1 billion to support 10,000 start-ups across Africa, scale over 1,000 of them, and create 10 million dignified jobs.
She stated, “We are reclaiming an African legacy. Here, engineering meets art. Business meets social enterprise. Here, a young person from Abia can create the next solution that changes Africa.”
UNDP Resident Representative in Nigeria, Ms. Elsie Attafuah, said the programme aimed to connect education, research, innovation, enterprise, and manufacturing to make universities drivers of economic growth.
TETFund Executive Secretary, Arc. Sonny Echono, represented by Dr. Suleman Zwingina, said the agency’s goal was to ensure tertiary institutions became the primary engines of Nigeria’s economic development.
MOUAU Vice Chancellor, Professor Ursula Ngozi Akanwa, said the UniPod represented “a new partnership between knowledge and enterprise, between research and manufacturing”.
Akanwa said, “Universities can no longer be measured only by graduates they produce or papers they publish. They must be judged by the industries they enable and the solutions they provide.”
The highlight of the event was the commissioning of the UniPod building by the vice president.
