‘Floating house, smart grain storage’ — Nigerian researchers unveil prototype innovations

Nigerian researchers have developed four prototype innovations aimed at addressing the challenges of hunger, poverty, quality education, responsible consumption, and production in the country.

The prototypes were developed by 18 researchers comprising lecturers from tertiary institutions across the country.

The project was executed under the research for impact (R4i), an initiative of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) in collaboration with Innov8 Hub.

In a statement on Thursday, TETFund said the researchers were divided into four teams and asked to come up with prototypes of their innovative solutions to challenges in the country.

Team one, called “responsible consumption and production”, designed smart grain storage using an approach that prevents pest infestation of stored grains and keeps them safe for consumption.

Team two, known as “no poverty”, also designed a floating house named “Gimbaliya” which was constructed using low-density material that float on water.

In the same vein, team three, called “zero hunger”, developed an automated ultrasonic solar-powered sprayer and broad-spectrum bio-pesticides for the control of pests in an eco-friendly manner, anchored on SDG 2-zero hunger.

Team four, titled “Quality Education”, also designed an innovation called “e-access’ which is a mobile application that helps to develop lecture materials for lecturers and students.

Commenting on the initiative, Sonny Echono, TETFund’s executive secretary, said the two-week programme was “a response to societal problems”.

“The research for impact initiative is a logical response to our desire to solve societal problems, to address the challenges we currently face in our country in terms of generating revenue,” he said.

“Our country is going through very difficult times, we have one of the highest population growth rates in the world and there are projections that in a few years now we will actually become the third in the world in terms of population.

“While many see this as a blessing, some of us also know that if we do not prepare our population and give them the tools to survive and compete, we have a time bomb in our hands because our landmark is not going to increase, we are going to have challenges.

Obichi Obiajunwa, the chief facilitator for R4i, commended TETFund for putting such “intensive training in innovation and prototype development together”.