Nigeria LNG Limited (NLNG) has inaugurated its $2 million Engineering Research Centre at the University of Ilorin (UNILORIN).
The centre is part of gas giant’s $12 million University Support Programme (USP).
So far, NLNG has inaugurated four laboratories in varsities. The based at the Ahmadu Bello University Multi-user Engineering Laboratory, the University of Ibadan Engineering Complex and the NLNG/University of Port Harcourt Oil and Gas Engineering Centre.
The scheme, according to NLNG’s General Manager, External Relations, Kudo Eresia-Eke, was launched in 2014 to boost engineering education.
The other beneficiaries are University of Maiduguri and University of Nigeria, Nsukka. The projects at the UMAID and UNN are at various levels of completion.
The inauguration was witnessed by a representative of Kwara State Governor, Dr Abdulfatah Ahmed, the Commissioner for Education, Musa Yekiti, directors of NLNG, the Council members of UNILORIN, among others.
In his keynote address, NLNG’s Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Babs Omotowa, said: “The University Support Programme is one of NLNG’s approaches to developing Nigerian human capital and fostering technological advancement. We recognise that universities, with their crop of young people and nimble minds, when aided properly, are the fertile grounds from which ideas to fast track Nigeria’s progress will spring from.’’
He continued: “At Nigeria LNG, we like to proudly assert that we have successfully built a great company. That is a fact. But today our challenge and focus is building an even greater one to bequeath to our successors and to Nigeria. Therefore, the USP project is, in a sense, another chapter in that momentous journey and another feather in NLNG’s cap as a socially responsible corporate organisation.
“We continue to offer scholarships to deserving young Nigerians at secondary school, university and post graduate levels. We also endow the Nigeria Prize for Science and the Nigeria Prize for Literature worth a $100,000 each, and run the Bonny Vocational Centre which awards the International Technical Vocation Level 3 Certificate of London City and Guilds and the Nigerian Skills Technical Certificate to graduates.
