Olusegun Arowolo, has invented a cocoa pod breaking machine to boost the production of the commodity as well as encourage more Nigerians to take into cocoa farming.
Mr. Olusegun Arowolo said the idea of inventing the machine was conceptualised to complete the mechanisation of cocoa plantation so as to take cocoa farming to large scale industrial dimension.
According to Mr. Arowolo:
“This machine was invented in order to encourage people, both young and old, especially school leavers to have interest and fun in going into cultivation of cocoa thereby reducing unemployment rate among the populace. The machine is to ease the hardship being encountered by farmers on cocoa plantation and boost production as well as increase internally generated revenue of the state.
The cocoa pod breaking machine was invented by me and it is the first of its kind worldwide and can break 20,000 to 30,000 pods per hour. Also, it is important to state that the cocoa season is around the corner and so the machine will complement the already available spraying and moving machine in the market.”
Nigeria has become the only country in Africa to have its two airports attain Global Safety Standard certified by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) and the only country in West Africa sub-region with internationally certified airports.
This was made known by the Director General of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Captain Muhtar Usman during the ceremony to mark the certification of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja. Last September, the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos was certified, thus recognising two major airports in the country as meeting global safety standards.
Two Nigerian business owners, Mr. Precious Adeho and Mrs. Ngozi Deborah Atalor, have emerged winners in the 2017 Shell LiveWIRE Top Ten Innovators competition, a global contest open to beneficiaries of Shell LiveWIRE, and aimed at rewarding shining cases of innovation in businesses supported by the programme.
The two Nigerians won the Merit prize along with four others in the same category, while businesses from the United Kingdom and Pakistan took the top and runner-up awards. The winners were announced during the Global Entrepreneurship Week holding November 13 – 17 in Freetown, Sierra Leone.
Jessey Uche-Nwichi and Munachi Ernest-Eze have emerged overall winners respectively in the junior and senior categories of the 2017 Cowbellpedia Maths Quiz.
By winning the 2017 Cowbellpedia Maths Quiz, Jessey Uche-Nwichi and Munachi Ernest-Eze emerge Nigeria’s youngest next inventors.
Munachi made history however, having won the 2015 edition in the junior category and coming back to win in the senior category.
Munachi is a 16-year-old student of Loyola Jesuit College, Abuja. He was the Cowbellpedia 2015 junior champion and is the first person to win the competition twice, as a junior and as a senior.
Jessey Uche-Nwichi is a 13-year-old student of Graceland International School, Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
Each of the champions got ₦1 million and an all-expense paid education excursion outside the country.
In the senior category, Munachi Ernest-Eze was trailed by Oluwanifise Onafowokan of The Ambassadors College, Ota, Ogun State and Evans Owamoyo of Greater Tomorrow International College, Arigidi Akoko, Ondo State, who finished as first and second runners-up respectively.
Michael Paul of Excel Grace Academy, Akaajime-Gboko, Benue State; Ikechukwu Ibeh of Federal Government College, Suleja, Niger State; and Tomiwa Olatunbosun of Bibo Oluwa Academy, Ilesha, Osun State were the other finalists in the Senior category.
Munachi Ernest-Eze said:
“I thank God for the end of the journey today. I am now confident to tell Nigerians that I was a Champion and I am a Champion again today. God has done it and it is marvellous in my eyes.”
Uche-Nwichi scored 115 points to confine Oluwafemi Adeyanju of Jesuit Memorial College, Port Harcourt, Rivers State and Ezekiel Ekanem of Advanced Breed Group of Schools, Sagamu, Ogun State to the second and third places respectively.
Uche-Nwichi dedicated his victory to God and his parents, while promising to maintain the momentum.
The first and second runners-up for each category won ₦750,000 and ₦500,000 respectively.
Each teacher of the 2017 champions in each category was rewarded with ₦400,000, while those of the first and second runners-up received ₦300,000 and ₦200,000 respectively.
Also, the winning schools won Mathematics textbooks, desktop computers and printers.
According to the Managing Director of Promasidor Nigeria Limited, Anders Einarsson:
“The programme has absolutely met its objectives.
We are committed to this initiative and by next year, we will celebrate 20 years of Mathematics and Cowbell.”
In his remarks, the Registrar of the National Examination Council, Prof. Charles Uwakwe, commended Promasidor for the Cowbellpedia initiative and stated that education remained the best legacy parents and society could give to children.
Uwakwe pledged NECO’s continued technical support for the project in appreciation of what he described as Promasidor’s great Corporate Social Responsibility to the Nigerian society.
The journey of the finalists began when 52,000 students wrote a preliminary test. Out of the 52,000, 108 made it to the live-show. These 108 were the 74 best junior and senior students from all 36 states and the FCT (to ensure every state is represented). The remaining 34 were the best students nationwide – 17 junior and senior. In the end, 12 finalists emerged – 6 in the junior and senior categories and 2 of them (Munachiso and Jessey) won the grand prize of 1 million Naira each, an all-paid educational excursion outside the country and the ultimate bragging rights of being the 2017 Mathematics Champions.
The Skin Cancer-Detecting Device (sKan), a low cost, non-invasive and handheld device has won the 2017 international James Dyson Award.
Invented by a team of four (a Nigerian and 3 Canadians) bioengineering undergraduates from Ontario’s McMaster University; Rotimi Fadiya, Michael Takla, Prateek Mathur and Shivad Bhavsar, the sKan is made from widely available and inexpensive components and can possibly make detection of the disease more accessible.
According to the World Health Organization, one in every three worldwide diagnosed cancer cases is a skin cancer.
James Dyson, founder of the Dyson company said the sKan received the award because it is “a very clever device with the potential to save lives around the world“. Since 2002, the James Dyson Award has been open to university or recent design graduates across the world and celebrates significant, practical and commercially viable designs.
To develop the device, the four graduates were awarded C$50,000 ($40,000; £30,000). The device uses temperature sensors to help in the early detection of melanoma, the most deadly form of skin cancer because cancerous cells have a higher metabolic rate than normal tissue cells. Cancerous tissue usually warms at a faster rate than non-cancerous tissue when the tissue skin is cooled.
How Great Is Nigeria! By Mpamugo Chinedu Christian
Good People, Great Nation
Besides in the setting of the slogan of the 2009 rebranding exercise and on a few other occasions, it is currently not common to see the word ‘great’ employed to describe Nigeria positively. The slogan itself is now scarsely heard, possibly more out of perceived inappropriateness than out of advancement beyond 2009. Indeed many headlines about the country today are those which, like a painter’s brush, successfully add successive layers of uncertainty and ugliness over her image. Unfortunately, Nigeria and Nigerians have become known for many unpleasant reasons. Widespread and deep-seated corruption, nepotism, misappropriation of public resources, insecurity of life and property especially due to militancy and terror, high unemployment and an unstable economy are realities which confront Nigeria. Adding to these bad governance at various levels, the weakness of basic infrastructure like education and health, poverty due to unequal distribution of wealth, continuous ethnic and religious tension and mistrust, and the surge in the level of crime, it is obvious that the concerns of well-meaning Nigerians are serious and sincere.
Lumen Christi International High School, Uromi, Edo State has emerged winner of the 2017 annual Lift Above Poverty Organisation, LAPO quiz competition held in Benin, Edo State.
Lumen Christi International High School scored 28 points in four subjects: Mathematics, English Language, Biology and Chemistry to defeat five other schools to claim the trophy.