Three teams of final-year Mechanical Engineering students at Obafemi Awolowo University have won ₦1 million in prizes from Moniepoint and the Tosin Eniolorunda Foundation for projects aimed at everyday Nigerian problems.
Solutions Built for Real Problems
The awards followed the department’s final-year project exhibition, where 12 student teams showed off their work. The three winning entries targeted agriculture, healthcare and environmental sustainability.
The top prize went to a solar-powered mobile refrigerator, designed to help cut the post-harvest losses that hurt farmers and traders. The first runner-up developed a dialysis membrane mechanism intended to make treatment more affordable for rural communities and people from disadvantaged backgrounds. The second runner-up built a gravity-fed water purification system that treats oil-spill-contaminated water without electricity, with the Niger Delta and similar affected communities in mind.
Why These Projects Matter
Each project responds to a problem that Nigerians face daily. Poor cold storage leaves food spoiling before it reaches the market. Dialysis is costly and often out of reach outside major cities. Oil pollution has damaged water sources in parts of the Niger Delta for years. By designing around low cost and low power, the students built for the conditions many communities actually live in.
A Show of Corporate Backing
A senior Moniepoint executive said the company and the Foundation would keep investing in the people and ideas that can drive Nigeria’s development. The exhibition also welcomed students from 10 secondary schools, giving younger pupils a close look at what engineering can achieve. OAU’s Director of Intellectual Property and Technology Transfer encouraged the visitors to research carefully and think critically about solving societal problems.
Building on Earlier Investment
The prizes are the latest in a run of support for the university. In 2024, the Foundation spent more than ₦100 million renovating and equipping the Mechanical Engineering laboratory, now named the Tosin Eniolorunda CAD/CAM Laboratory. The facility gives students better tools for learning, research and innovation. Tosin Eniolorunda is himself an OAU alumnus.
In 2026, the Foundation and Moniepoint Group also launched a ₦3 billion innovation hub programme across three universities, OAU, the University of Nigeria, Nsukka and Ahmadu Bello University, to train the next generation of tech talent.
What Comes Next
A prize does not guarantee a product. The next test for these teams is whether their prototypes can be refined, tested in the field and developed into something communities can use. Support that follows the cash award, such as mentorship, funding for testing or industry links, will decide how far these ideas travel.
