A firm, Supply Chain Africa, in partnership with Adebayo Adeleke LLC, is set to build a research and innovation centre at Ladoke Akintola University of Technology (LAUTECH), in Ogbomoso, Oyo State.
The project, which will cost N5 billion ($4.5 million), and established at the Department of Transport Management of the university, is aimed at revolutionising supply chain research and development not only in Nigeria but also across the world.
The visionary of the project, Adebayo Adeleke, while speaking during a visit to the Acting Vice Chancellor of the university, Prof. Rasaq Kalilu, expressed commitment towards advancing supply chain solution within Africa.
He underscored the importance of research and innovation in tackling complex challenges and also emphasised multidisciplinary nature of the centre, which integrated fields such as engineering, robotics and art.
According to him, the project would be the first Supply Chain, Research and Innovation Center in Nigeria and second in Africa when completed, stating that one of the motives behind building of the centre is to foster relationship between government, academia and industries in proffering solution to problem of Nigeria through research and innovations.
He said, “By what we intend to build here which is a world class because we cannot shortchange anything, our rough estimate is about N5 billion. The essence of this research facility is to foster relationship between Government, academia and industries because nobody has monopoly knowledge. All the three tiers coming together to proffer solutions to all our problems, the essence of this is to have ready made solution that can solve some of challenges facing our supply chain.”
The Vice Chancellor in his remarks, lauded the initiative of Adeleke, noting that the institution has been looking forward towards partnering with such minds and possible agencies.
He stated that the centre would go along way in assisting the University to upend its research capabilities and linkages, adding that one of his goal since he came on board was to internationalised operations of the University so as to repositioned it and make positive impact at global level.
