UNICAL trains 100 technologists on equipment maintenance

At least 100 members of the National Association of Academic Technologists at the University of Calabar (UNICAL) have undergone training in equipment repairs and maintenance.

The three-day training workshop took place at the university’s Equipment Maintenance Development Centre (EMDC) on Microscopes and Spectrophotometers.

In a speech at the end of the training on Saturday, the Vice Chancellor (VC) of the university, Prof. Florence Obi, said she was happy with the outcome of the exercise.

Obi said that she was excited that the technologists could detect and fix faults in the microscopes during the training.

She promised to deploy available resources to ensure the actualisation of the centre’s objectives.

She also promised to expand the training to those that would be interested in the repairs of printers, air conditioners, laptops and photocopiers, amongst others.

Obi charged the technologists to expand the scope of their knowledge on practicals.

She said that they had been trained to become resource persons to other institutions on repairs of microscopes, printers and laptops, amongst others.

She said that she was elated with the turnout of technologists and the choice of the university in the South-South for the training.

“As management, we will provide this centre with a larger complex to accommodate a large pool of technologists and students from within and outside the university for relevant capacity building programmes.

“I want to charge you all to always stand out and be unique in all that you do.

“With your support, we will take UNICAL to the international stage of greatness.

“The EMDC in UNICAL should be a hub for training other technologists in the South-South region and Nigeria at large,” she said.

The Director of EMDC, Dr Joseph Ebigwai, said that the centre was one of the directorates in the university saddled with the training of staff members and students on repairs of scientific equipment in the institution.

Ebigwai said that the institution was one of the five selected by the National Universities Commission in 2006 as an EMDC hub for the region.

According to him, the directorate will serve as a practical skill acquisition centre for students.

“It will also provide support services to the VC in the equipment procurement processes.

“Between January and February, the number of nonfunctional equipment in UNICAL was about 6,045.

“Their current market value at the current dollar rate is above N1billion,” Ebigwai said.