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Conrad Mupesa–Mashonaland West Bureau
As Zimbabwe edges closer to attaining National Development Strategy 1 (NDS-1) and Vision 2030, universities have been challenged to contribute towards the industrialisation of the nation.
The call came from Higher and Tertiary Education, Innovation, Science and Technology Development Minister Professor Amon Murwira during the official launch on Monday of the Fifth Chinhoyi University of Technology (CUT) international conference on innovation, industrialisation, growth and sustainable development.
The conference being attended by delegates and representatives of tertiary institutions from across the globe ends this Friday and is running concurrently with the university’s 20th anniversary.
Said Prof Murwira: “Our education must be the provider of thinking. Remodelling our education to focus on our resources for development is key. We can use the education that we can get from anywhere else in the country, but apply it to fit our environment.
“International recognition comes from what we can produce not regurgitate. We want to use the minds of our people and our resources and configure the problem to industrialise this country.”
Prof Murwira added that since the introduction of Education 5.0, Zimbabwe had witnessed tremendous innovations coming from universities and colleges.
“Zimbabwe cannot keep importing when it has vast resources that we can develop from,” he said. “Our universities must now move from just innovating, but industrialising.”
The universities that have since gone industrial, were called to increase their efforts for Zimbabwe’s fast-paced development and industrialisation.
CUT has made headlines as one of the universities in the country to produce livestock medicines, semen and sanitisers, among other products.
It has a state-of-the-art milking parlour to milk 640 cows a day and is also expected to rack up a revenue of US$140 million from the sale of seven million straws of semen to be produced yearly.
It has been contracted to help construct a satellite station in Mazowe.
Other universities that have turned their innovative minds to the industry include Midlands State University which starts producing new road surfacing material this June. Prof Murwira said university lecturers needed to come up with innovative and industrial ideas rather than providing theoretical knowledge to students.
CUT’s vice chancellor, Prof David Simbi, said learning at the university was a hands-on approach model in line with Education 5.0.
Mashonaland West Minister of State for Provincial Affairs and Devolution, Mary Mliswa commended CUT for promoting rural industrialisation and development.
“CUT has made us proud every year,” she said. “This university has promoted rural industrialisation through the production of goods and services for the benefit of the nation.”
A representative of the Green Biotechnologies Research Centre at the University of Limpopo in South Africa, Dr Ashwell Ndhlala, said Africa needed to come up with means to standardise traditional medicines which were in turn expected to create employment and cut on billions of import bills.
Prof Claudio Fontanesi from the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia in Italy, who spoke on applied electrochemistry, lauded Zimbabwe’s Education 5.0 which he said was expected to develop and industrialise the southern African nation.
The conference resumed this year after a three-year hitus due to Covid-19.
Online Reporter