As part of its contribution to curbing the spread of coronavirus in Nigeria, the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA) has designed and produced 2 types of ventilators, hand wash, and sanitizer that could be quickly reproduced to stem the shortage of the equipment in the country.
The design and production of the ventilators are coming a week after the Commandant NDA, Major General Jamil Sarham, convened a team of engineers, technologists, and technicians from the Mechatronics Department under Major Dr. Abubakar Suraj Imam to “rapidly develop affordable ventilator within the shortest possible time, using readily available components”. The team was also tasked to “develop the capacity of producing at least 30 ventilators in a month”. This is against the backdrop of the high cost of foreign-made ventilators and the present difficulties associated with procuring these.
Presenting their report to the Commandant, head of the team who is also Head of Department Mechatronics, Major Dr. Abubakar Surajo Imam, disclosed that his team was able to, within a week, design and produce 2 unique ventilators that could be quickly deployed to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. According to him, both ventilators, NDA Type 1 and NDA Type 2 could be reproduced cheaply and noted that currently, the Academy has the capacity of producing 30 ventilators in a month.
