By Gabriel Dike
As part of its corporate social responsibility (CSR) to the nation, Grooming Centre, last week, doled out N18 million to some Nigerian students to promote research and innovation.
At the Grooming Centre’s fourth research award ceremony, 120 university students, made up of 60 postgraduates and 60 undergraduates, were presented with cheques of N200,000 and N100,000 to aid their research projects.
The award ceremony attracted top management staff of the centre, and the Centre for Research in Enterprise and Action in Management (CREM), while the guest speaker, Prof. Bongo Adi of Lagos Business School (LBS), spoke on the Role of Research Development.
In his remarks, the Chief Executive Officer of Grooming Centre, Dr. Godwin Nwabunka said the initiative started in 2019 and is meant to promote research and enterprise development among Nigerian youths.
Dr. Nwabunka described that research as vital and the engineer of growth for developing nations, stating “the grant is to encourage young people to focus on research development.”
According to him, the award has grown from 25 winners in 2019 to 41 in 2020, 68 in 2021 and this year, 120 emerged winners.
He said: “We intend to increase and spread the news about the research grant. This year, students from 47 institutions participated. We moved from a cash prize of N75, 000 to N150, 000 for postgraduate students and now N200, 000.
“We want to see the awardees use their research for a better result in form of products. I hope the award will help you finalize your projects and take them to the next level in terms of products.
The Project Manager, Mr. Chikezie Egbulefu, recalled that in 2016, the centre came up with a scholarship scheme to reward clients’ children.
He added that the scholarship was awarded to 1,000 pupils for three years at N150, 000, adding, ‘’every year; Grooming Centre spends N200 million on education.”
Egbulefu said the centre began operation 16 years ago as an NGO and has given over a billion naira as loans to over 150 people.
He stressed that the grant is for undergraduate and postgraduate students to come up with a viable project that can be developed into a product.
The manager said over 350 students applied for the grant from 47 tertiary institutions out of which 120 emerged winners and that the award was targeted at 150 students.
Egbufelu revealed that since 2019, the centre expected 600 winners but for other reasons than financial constraints, only 254 postgraduate and undergraduate students have been rewarded.
One of the lucky winners for undergraduate, Beckley Oluwatoyosi, a 400-level student of Lagos State University (LASU), lauded Grooming Centre for initiating the research grant.
The 21 years old Accounting student said a friend, who won in 2019 introduced her to the grant, noting, “the grant will help to empower me in my research project.”
A postgraduate student of the University of Lagos (UNILAG), Matthew Ogunsakin, also appreciated the centre for the research grant, adding, “the grant will help me because my project is on recycling machine for waste plastics.”
The 29 years old Mechanical Engineering student said his project supervisor sent him the link for the grant. He said the grant is a financial relief to him because he has already spent over N200, 000 on the project.
Meanwhile, Prof. Adi, who spoke on “Role of Research Development”, commended the centre for investing in research and observed that all leading nations accorded priority to research
He charged the 120 lucky students to take advantage of the research grant and make an impact in their chosen fields by coming out with products that would solve problems. The high point of the event was the presentation of cheques to the students by Dr. Nwabunka, members of Governing Board of the centre, the Chief Executive Officer of CREM, Mr. Clifford Onyeike and a youth leader from Iyana Ejigbo.
