Prof. Richard Kimbir, the Vice-Chancellor of Joseph Sarwuan Tarka University Makurdi, says the university has developed “bettacoal” to help low-income earners to cut cost of cooking energy.
Kimbir said this on Thursday in Makurdi, explaining that “bettacoal is smokeless as well as affordable cooking fuel made from dried agricultural waste.
“The aim is to help low-income households and food businesses in Nigeria to cut costs on cooking energy while replacing firewood and charcoal to save trees and the planet.
“The innovation has won several awards. It is the only innovation from Africa to make the top eight in the race for Climate Action out of 90 projects from all over the world.
“It has qualified to compete in San Juan, Puerto Rico and U.S.”
He said that “bettacoal” emerged top four out of 89 entries/projects from 68 universities in 13 countries at Action with Africa challenge sponsored by Germany Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit and organised by Enactus HQ.
The vice-chancellor said that it was the only team from Nigeria and sub-saharan Africa to reach such a milestone.
He also said that the university had also developed “Q-Rep” which means Quick Response and it was built to address insecurity and firearms in shops, offices and homes.
“The technology is built on sensors, Global System for Mobile (GSM) technology and Global Positioning System (GPS)to detect fire bridges, process and send message to integrated device phone number showing the GPS coordinates as well as location for quick response,” he said.