The Nigerian Academy of Engineering has awarded N17.5 million to the winners of the inaugural engineering innovation competition, which is meant to encourage and reward local innovators.
Mr Izumunna Obinna, who developed an intruder safety device, came second and won N5 million, while the third position went to the developers of BMV-6 ventilator, who was awarded N2.5 million, and Dr lwar Raphael Terungwa won $4,000 for travel fellowship grant for further study in Malaysia. Onwualu said the academy believed that the younger generation should drive the process for sustainable development driven by technology, which gave birth to the national innovation competition that rewards people, who provide engineering solutions to problems in different sectors of the Nigerian environment.
He emphasised the need for innovators to assemble materials used in developing devices locally as the only way to reduce the high cost of technology for solving problems in the country. He said the NAE feels innovators in the engineering space should be celebrated, seek for sponsors, commercialise their products and make money from their inventions.