Online Reporter
Zvamaida Murwira [email protected]
PRESIDENT Mnangagwa is today expected to commission the University of Zimbabwe Industrial Incubation Hub as well as the Specialist Medical Centre as the institution of higher learning moves to drive innovation, support product development and facilitate the transformation of ideas into tangible solutions.
This is in fulfilment of its mandate under the Heritage-Based Model Education 5.0 to produce goods and services.
The incubation hub is located at the Msasa Industrial Park while the Medical Centre is located in Avondale.
The launch of the industrial incubation hub marks an important milestone for the UZ to commercialise proto-type innovation ideas and skills conceived from the institution’s innovation hub by students.
In an interview, Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development Permanent Secretary, Professor Fanuel Tagwira said the two centres will commercialise innovation ideas by students.
“This is an important milestone. It was His Excellency, the President who encouraged us to have Education 5.0. We are now on another step where we are commercialising the projects. We are now seeing the full circle of His Excellency the President’s idea of Education 5.0,” said Prof Tagwira.
“The incubation hub is there to help young people whose projects have gone through the innovation hub and are ready for commercialisation. It is more of an industrial hub. They will commercialise their proto-type. It is a start- up place. They can start small businesses where industry can come and interact with them.”
Prof Tagwira said the Specialist Medical Centre is for those students specialising in different medical disciplines and the centre will expose them to the real equipment that they had been learning in lecture rooms.
“It’s a specialised hospital to train specialist medical students. Apart from getting skills and knowledge they will use real equipment for either eye specialists or dental equipment for example, using the latest and modern equipment,” said Prof Tagwira.
The UZ Special Medical Centre is a multi- disciplinary centre providing oral health, eye health, assisted reproduction and emergency care services. The four main units provide primary health care, specialist health care and community care services. This in addition to teaching, learning and research to meet Government’s education policy.
The oral health centre provides comprehensive oral health services and is the main national referral centre in Zimbabwe.
It will provide routine examinations, preventive care and restorative treatment, prosthodontics, oral surgery and orthodontics.
The eye centre is a one stop unit providing both optometry and specialist ophthalmology clinical care services
Assisted Reproduction Unit will provide comprehensive assisted reproduction services including in vitro Fertilisation (IVF). The assisted reproduction and IVF centre activities include patient consultations, ovarian stimulation monitoring and laboratory fertilisation procedures. The specialization will guide patients through structured medical journeys to help achieve pregnancy.
The Incubation centre in Msasa was established to technically support, nurture and mentor UZ linked start-up companies through industry collaboration and market participation strategies towards commercialization of products, goods and services.
The centre currently hosts 11 start-up companies ranging from agriculture, cosmetology, education, energy, engineering, ICT, pharmaceutical, health and transport.
In the last five years, President Mnangagwa has commissioned 10 impactful projects from the UZ’s ecosystem that include the agro- processing plant at the Agro Industrial Park, National Transtech Solutions Centre which now produces vehicle number plates for the country.
In addition, Future Foods Private Limited, an innovation hub start-up and students bus terminus among others, have been commissioned.
Today’s event will draw delegates from the academia, captains of industry, students and diplomats accredited to Zimbabwe.
President Mnangagwa officially launched the University of Zimbabwe Innovation Hub on August 5, 2019, marking a key milestone for the Education 5.0 heritage-based model aimed at promoting industrialization, modern technology, and practical skills development across Zimbabwean tertiary institutions.
The Education 5.0 model seeks to shift the academic focus from traditional job-seeking to teaching, research, community service, innovation, and industrialisation.
The Government has funded innovation hubs in different institutions of higher learning and President Mnangagwa has challenged students to “dream” about their innovation as part of deliberate effort to encourage research and innovation.
The idea was to bridge the gap between academia, state enterprises, and commerce to foster local manufacturing and economic growth under national development goals.
The Vehicle Registration Plate/Tag Facility, on the other hand, demonstrated the country’s ability to develop its own vehicle registration system, reducing the reliance on imported solutions and contributing to the broader goal of self-sufficiency and import substitution.
