The vice chancellor of the University
of Lagos (UNILAG) Professor Oluwatoyin Ogundipe, has disclosed that in order to
boost the nation’s refinery capacity, the institution would soon set up
conventional and standard locally-built refineries, Ogundipe made the
disclosure at the 1st Annual General Meeting and 2nd Alumni Lecture of the
UNILAG Faculty of Engineering Alumni Association. The VC stated that the
institution needs to be exposed to refining processes, as it produces Chemical
Engineering graduates. He stated: “A committee has been set up to under-study
the process from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. If you go to some of the
universities in Texas, when their students graduate, because they have
refineries in their universities, they do not need to do certain courses when
it comes to professional courses. “Engineering has left that level of just
setting down and stats computing. It is now about turning ideas to realities.
It is about producing entrepreneurial skills and developing the skills in the
life our students. “We need to develop our students. All of them have skills
that are unique to them, and the skills can help them set up their own
businesses in future. “Most of our students can develop application, while some
are with different skills. As a vice chancellor, faculty by faculty, I am going
to interact with students to encourage them to develop their skills; and we
have already gotten the commitment of Central Bank of Nigeria, and Bank of
Industry, for funds. The development was made public by Professor Ibrahim
Mohammed-Dabo, the team leader, ABU refinery project, and an expert in chemical
engineering. He said: “Our ultimate goal is to have a conventional and standard
locally-built refinery that can be refining Nigerian crude. We are hoping if
enough funding is made available to us to perfect what we have on ground; we
shall be willing to build other ones that can be stationed in the Niger Delta.”
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