President Lazarus Chakwera has described the establishment of the University Innovation Pod (UNIPOD) as a significant milestone in technology advancement the country.
The country’s leader was speaking this today (Wednesday) during the official launch of the Malawi University of Business and Applied Sciences (MUBAS) University Innovation Pod (UNIPOD) at the university’s campus in Blantyre.
Chakwera described the UNIPOD as a vital infrastructure which will greatly contribute towards country’s development and economic growth as it will support turning innovations into commercial products and services.
“Malawi as a country is rich with innovators, however, they were lacking materials and support which from today onwards all will be found in this UNIPOD we are launching today,” said the president.
He added that the infrastructure is for each and every innovator not limited to students only.
He also thanked United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) for its US$2 Million and technical support towards the project.
Speaking earlier, Minister of Education, Madalitso Kambauwa Wirima said the launch of the UNIPOD signifies president Chakwera’s commitment to harnessing the power of research, creativity, technology, innovation and collaboration for the betterment of the society.
She said the UNIPOD is poised to incubate ideas for both economic growth and well-being of the citizens by addressing the pressing challenges that Malawi and the world at large face across sectors
In her remarks, Associate Professor for the University, Nancy Chitera said the facility will help nurture talent and innovations that are marketable and most importantly, offer solutions to the country and the world at large.
She said this will foster the creation of a prototype that holds significant potential for transforming into commercially viable products hence providing an alternative for export substitution.
In the Malawi 2063, the Ministry of Education is implementing Enabler 5, Human Capital Development which emphasizes on skills development. In line with that, the Pod which is the first in the Southern Africa Development Community among others will protect innovators and make them benefit from their innovations, encourage entrepreneurship, develop new skills for innovators and promote business in line with Malawi 2063 Agenda
Today’s event was patronized by international participants from several countries in Africa who came to tapp knowledge from this milestone initiative.
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