Malawi Cabinet approves ethanol research
Principal of the Lilongwe Technical College Peter Njunga says cabinet has approved the Ethanol Research Project the college is involved in together with the National Commission for Science and Technology.
Njunga said this during the graduatioin ceremony of 135 students who have completed their studies in various disciplines.
Said Njunga: ” The Lilongwe Technical College is fully involved in research activities which I am proud to say have been approved by cabinet after very successful implementation by the college. The college was entrusted to undertake an ethanol project on the use of ethanol on vehicles and the results have pleased cabinet hence the approval. This has come at a right time for the country because the number of vehicles is increasing and we will be able to save forex.”
He said apart from the ethanol research project the college is also involved in science and technology fairs and it plans to upgrade to a polytechnic.
“We have a colourful dream to increase the number of students from the current 1 600 to 2 000 by January 2014. Above all else we have a dream to upgrade our college in the near future to a polytechnic following the success of the ethanol project,” he said.
Minister of Labour Grace Maseko commended the college for successfully completeing the ethanol project which she said will help the country save its hard earned forex.
She also commended the graduating students and asked them to put into practice what they learned so that the country should benefit from their expertise.
Students union president Rabson Chisemphere assured the minister that the graduating students will do their best to continue working hard and establish their own companies which will employ fellow Malawians.
The graduating students sat for different examinations including Trade Test, Malawi Craft Exams, CBET, City and Guilds of London, ABMA, ABE, PAEC, CISCO, and ACCA.
Congrats. Good vision. By 2020 you should be training 5000 students. It will still be a drop in the ocean given our high population. You have my full support. Waste no time. We need the polytechnic now. Investment in technical education is all we need to transform the country into a manufacturing hub. The demand for technical education is very high. Let us train our young people for domestic as well as foreign labour markets.
my oh my! research on use of ethanol in cars? brazil has been running cars on pure ethanol for more than 20 years now. what research is there to be done? why not just import the technology?
peter
talking of reinventing the wheel. let us just copy the technology from Brazil and start selling ethanol locally
Malawi make no cars, only import, other countries make cars and uses Ethanol. Are we trying to produce our own cars? or we have our own engenes?
This is not about Culture no DNA, lets say we want to learn how ethanol burn coz other countries have done research and have found it working.
we are fond of doubting innovations and this is why Innovation is not even supported in this country, we are good at Cash Gate
During Banda’s time ethanol petrol blend was aplenty. Obviously the technology existed then (thirty years ago or so), but may be needed some tweaking. Don’t tell me that with multiparty democracy everything went with the wind. No wonder the country is regressing, 49 years and counting. Why do we allow these law makers waste tax payer’s money discussing petty issues when there are huge challenges facing Malawi today? We are still one of the poorest countries in the world today and yet we have so many natural resources and human capital that go to waste because we lack visionary leadership.