Nust banks on innovation to fight Covid-19

Ngqwele Dube, Sunday News Correspondent
WHILE the novel coronavirus pandemic has presented many challenges to all sectors in the economy, it has however, presented an opportunity for innovation and ingenuity to some.

As an institution of higher learning, the National University of Science and Technology (Nust) has grabbed the chance to fight Covid-19 through harnessing their various departments to join in the fight against the pandemic.

When the call came out from President Mnangagwa for universities to come to the fore in battling the coronavirus, Nust put their Innovation Hub to full use as they sought ways to become part of the fight.

In their response to the immediate needs in fighting the virus, Nust came up with a sanitiser and face masks manufacturing unit. Nust acting Pro Vice-Chancellor — Innovation and Business Development, Dr Peter Nkala said they saw the immediate needs in the fight against the virus as being sanitisers and face masks, and they quickly deployed resources to come up with the products.

Chemical Engineering Head of Department, Dr Nkosikhona Hlabangana said they had initially planned to produce sanitisers for use at the university, but as cases grew nationally, they increased their output.

“We were producing between 1 000 and 3 000 litres of sanitiser a day in the laboratory but now we scaled up production through the assistance of the ministry and are now able to produce between 25 000 and 30 000 litres a day”.

“For us however, it was not enough that we are just producing sanitisers, through hard work and team work between the departments of Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry, we went further and managed to get our product certified by the Standards Association of Zimbabwe. We have seen questionable sanitisers on the market with people mixing methylated spirit and funny chemicals, mixtures that are not safe so we decided to get our products certified to show they meet the prescribed high quality standards,” he said.

The SAZ certification of the university’s hand sanitiser “NUSTISER” to ARS ZWS 1470:2020 standard reflects the steps taken by Nust to ensure the production of a high-quality, safe, effective, and user-friendly alcohol-based hand sanitiser.

Dr Hlabangana said they were working hard to supply the whole of Matabeleland and Midlands regions and are also supplying NatPharm.

They are working with a production team of 15 personnel.

Nust managed to capacitate several small to medium enterprises with technical know-how in producing the sanitisers, while they have been working with other institutions such as the Bulawayo Polytechnic and eight schools that include three from Plumtree, two from Bulilima and three from Bulawayo.

The institution has been acquiring the inputs locally with ethanol coming from Chisumbanje while peroxide and glycerine are procured from local companies, although Dr Hlabangana indicated they experience periodic time delays as Bulawayo entities at times run out of stock and they have to turn to firms based in Harare.

Fibre and Polymer Materials department lecturer, Sizo Ncube, who is in charge of producing masks said they were moved into action by the shortage of the protective equipment worldwide.

He revealed that they are going beyond coming up with masks and they are exploring other areas such as making surgical protective wear and face shields.

“We have ordered a 3D printer from (United States) America that has been shipped, which we will use to produce face shields. We have partnered six small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and we are producing over 50 000 masks weekly. We design them to ensure they meet the French standards association (AFNO) standards as recommended by the World Health Organisation,” said Ncube.

The Head of Marketing Department, Dr Daisy Odunze said they have been supplying NatPharm, industries, businesses, mines, and schools.

She revealed that with the easing of the lockdown with more people allowed to travel, they were changing their strategy to target individuals and get their products on the retails stores shelves.

“We are now also targeting individual distributors, supermarkets and pharmacies to ensure they stock our products. We have engaged some retail outlets and we are addressing some packaging concerns they had raised which we believe will make the product more attractive. At the moment, the products are available at the Nust Innovation Hub and the Nust library in the city centre and those who intend placing orders are welcome to do so,” said Dr Odunze.

Dr Nkala said the production of the sanitisers, and the masks were a precursor to a bigger project the university will be engaging in through the Innovation Hub as they partner with SMEs to produce quality products.

Code-named the Bulawayo Technology Centre, the project will see Nust initially work with clothing manufacturers, honey processors and plastic bottle producers.

“We have acquired machinery from the Ministry of SMEs which will see us assisting entities harness technology in producing their goods through cost-effective and technological processes. We believe the Innovation Hub will play a critical role going forward and in respect to the Covid-19 situation we are looking at also producing surgical gowns and N95 masks worn by surgeons even beyond the pandemic while we are mindful of the fact that sanitising places of work, schools and homes will be with us in the foreseeable future, we intend producing a disinfectant for use both indoors and outdoors,” said Dr Nkala.