Nigeria appears to have made fresh inroads in its fight against the COVID-19 pandemic after a team of researchers at the University of Benin (UNIBEN) manufactured a clinically tested Ventilator.
The ventilator is produced to assist in sustaining COVID-19 patients in the state.
The varsity’s public relations officer, Benedicta Ehanire, announced the feat in a statement on Tuesday.
She disclosed that the feat was achieved by the institution’s engineering and medical sciences faculty.
She added the group, led by Kensington Obahiagbon, a professor in the varsity, factored in the peculiar circumstances and prevailing realities of the country while producing the ventilator.
According to her, the project has now been presented to Lilian Salami, the university’s vice-chancellor, alongside other members of the school management.
“A clinically-tested ventilator produced by a team of researchers in the Faculty of Engineering and Medical Sciences has been presented to the management of the University,” Ehanire said.
“The invention is in response to the vice-chancellor’s challenge to various experts in the university to make relevant marks to showcase the institution’s talents.”
Speaking on the project, Obahiagbon, who led the research team, said: “The ventilator was produced to work without electricity for at least one hour.”
The ventilator, which was designed to function in a dual-mode for adults and children, comes at a time when countries have started looking inward and inching closer to self-reliance in the battle against COVID-19.
It also follows after Nigeria’s finance ministry had come under criticism for asking Elon Musk, Tesla CEO, to send the country free ventilators in response to a message by the US billionaire.
Nigeria’s COVID-19 cases have soared to 1337 with 40 deaths recorded so far.