Federal University Ndufu-Alike Ikwo (FUNAI), Ebonyi State has signed a memorandum of understanding with Mangosuthu University of Technology (MUT), South Africa, to partner in the area of collaborative research.
This was made known recently by the Vice-Chancellors of the two Universities - Professor Chinedum Nwajiuba and Professor Marcus Ramogale after putting pen to paper in South Africa, to signal the commencement of the partnership.


Represented by the Director of Research and Development, Prof Onuegbu O. Ugwu, the Vice Chancellor of FUNAI during a 10-day research visit to South Africa which was funded by the National Research Foundation, South Africa, noted that both institutions have agreed to collaborate in providing solutions to systemic problems bedeviling the African continent through bi-directional knowledge exchange.
During the visit Prof. Ugwu also participated in a 2-day postgraduate workshop in the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal (UKZN) where he delivered a keynote address on ‘Students’ (Postgraduate) Scholarship as Component of the University Research Ecosystem’, and stressed that his postgraduate supervising experiences across Europe, Asia and Africa revealed that students have inert potential to become purveyors of knowledge creation and distribution in a university research ecosystem, with the capacity to transform the African continent.


Meanwhile, Prof Ugwu also had presentations with the Faculty of Engineering, Mangosuthu University of Technology (MUT) and Durban University of Technology (DUT). Speaking on ‘Robust African Universities Research, Development & Innovation (RDI), Ecosystems: a Sin-Qua-Non to Change the Continent’s Growth Narratives in the 21st Century’, he emphasized that university-driven research, development and Innovation (RDI) is the only factor that spurned China’s phenomenal growth and socio-economic transformation and catapulted it into mainstream global political architecture, adding that such could be replicated in African Universities if given an environmental-friendly atmosphere.
He further stated that university-driven research, development and innovation (RDI) initiatives could pull the continent from the abyss of perennial underdevelopment, stressing that sustainable infrastructure was a prerequisite to attaining UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Africa.