Chronicle Editor
Mashudu Netsianda, Senior Reporter
THE National University of Science and Technology (Nust) is aiming to produce 20 000 litres of hand sanitiser as part of its efforts to fight Covid-19 amid plans to set up a company to manufacture personal protective equipment (PPEs).
The company, Hoaxwater Investments (Pvt) Ltd, to be operationalised soon, is expected to generate the much-needed revenue for Nust and fund its infrastructure development programme.
Speaking during Minister of Finance and Economic Development Professor Mthuli Ncube’s tour to assess Nust’s state of preparedness in terms of fighting Covid-19 on Friday, acting Pro-Vice Chancellor responsible for the Nust innovation and business development (IDB) division, Dr Peter Nkala said they were in the process of negotiating with several organisations for memoranda of understanding and signing non-disclosure agreements ahead of full commercialisation.
“We are seeing opportunities in Covid-19 and even after this pandemic we want to turn into a fully-fledged company that will generate income for Nust. We are already working on a proposal for that company and the name is Hoaxwater Investments (Pvt) Ltd. This is one of the shelf companies that we bought last year and now with all this activity, we want to activate it so that it becomes operational,” he said.
So far, through its IDB division, Nust has produced 40 000 face masks after roping in 10 small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) in Bulawayo in the project.
“We are also involved in the production of PPEs and at the moment we have produced 40 000 face masks and that arrangement was done through 10 SMEs around Bulawayo which have been sub contracted to produce the masks. We are also into sanitiser production through the Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry Departments and our capacity so far has been about 5 000 litres a week, but we are upscaling so that we can reach the capacity of about 20 000 litres per week,” said Dr Nkala.
He said under their Covid-19 interventions, Nust through its Department of Electronic Engineering, is also planning to refurbish ventilators.
Recently, the university fixed one of the ventilators at the United Bulawayo Hospitals, but the equipment is yet to be certified safe for usage by medical professionals.
After independent verification, the university is ready to restore seven others that have not been working for a long time.
Ventilators are used in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) to assist critical patients to breathe.
Covid-19 affects the respiratory systems of critical patients and the country has an acute shortage of the machines.
“Coming to Covid-19 interventions that we have done under the Nust innovation hub where all commercial activities are coordinated, we have also come up with the testing and our Applied Genetics Testing Centre is actively involved in the testing of Covid-19 in Bulawayo,” Dr Nkala said.
Nust Vice Chancellor, Professor Mqhele Dlodlo said the university is prioritising the commercial aspect of campus development in line with 5.0 Education, a newly adopted education curriculum which has a slant towards modern technological trends.
“We are having a shift among management and academics involved in the fight against Covid-19. We are planning beyond Covid-19 and even before Covid-19, Nust was trying to prioritise commercial aspect of campus development as a smart suburb of a smart city and the city council is thinking in terms of a smart city,” he said.
He said the problem of legacy debts continued to hamper the university’s infrastructural development plans and for the past two years, Nust has been struggling to clear its debt of more than $1, 3 million.
“We are dealing with a legacy debt, which has been a stumbling block for more than two years now. However, Covid-19 has given us an opportunity to venture into commercial activities. We believe, the innovation hub phase two will also generate enough spin offs and startups to see us moving forward and these possibilities are beginning to show up in the face of Covid-19,” he said.
Prof Yogeshkumar Naik, Nust’s Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research and Academic Affairs, said for the university to be innovative, it should produce products and commercialise. He said research is an instrument of enhancing economic growth. “We need to first do a research and our major constraint right now is the facilities to do research. We need these research facilities and have the right equipment,” he said.
“We need funding for inter-university grants and to do that you need access to a software that would enable us to look for opportunities for funding and that requires US$10 000 and that investment will bring in hundreds of thousands in US dollars.”-@mashnets
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