Ben Ezechime, Enugu
Dr Peter Ogbobe, the Director General of Projects Development Institute (PRODA), Enugu, has urged Nigerian investors to patronize the institute’s products to encourage technological growth in the country.
The director general said this during interaction with Journalists in his office in Enugu.
He said that the institute had made several technological breakthroughs which needed the attention and patronage of Nigerian investors.
“Here, we produce so many things like chalks but we don’t sell, it is when an investor needs them we mass-produce. Incidentally, no investor has come for it.
“One of the major challenges we are having here is that investors are not coming as expected.
“Since my assumption of office we have been trying a lot to let people know what we are doing,” he said.
According to him, presently PRODA is carbonising rice horse from Abakaliki rice meal and briquette it.
“It can be used for cooking in place of charcoal; when we do the carbonization then we briquette it.
“It burns very fast and without smoke, very good for smoking fish and others,” he said.
Ogbobe said that they were also carbonising sawdust, as well as palm kernel fibre, adding that this was better alternative to charcoal.
“We also develop device that can generate noise continuously from 7am in the morning to 6pm in the evening that can chase away quelea birds in the farms for individuals.
“We generate 25 different sounds from the device and this is solar powered,” he said.
Ogbobe said they decided to generate 25 different sounds consistently to ensure that the birds permanently vacate the area.
“Quelea birds behaved like human beings such that if they keep hearing a particular sound they will know it is not human beings,” he said.
The director general said that one of his achievements in the institute was ensuring peace and engendering team work among members of staff.
He said: “Before I came in there was a lot of infighting, segregation and bitterness among members of staff.
“But when I assumed office, I told them there was the need for peace and for us to come together, work as a team in order to move the institute forward.”
He said that one of measures he introduced was an award for the best research team.
Ogbobe said that as a research institute the idea was to see that they also work as team to produce results.
“As a research institute PRODA was not ranked among best research institutes in Nigeria not to talk of the world, but today we have improved
“I tried since I came in to revolutionarize the institute to meet her mandate to lead Nigeria’s technological innovations,” Ogbobe said.
