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Taiwan ambassador pledges country’s collaboration with ACE-SPED of UNN

The Taiwan Ambassador in Nigeria, Andy Yih-Ping Liu, has pledged his country’s collaboration with the Africa Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Power and Energy Development (ACE-SPED) of University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN)

Yih-Ping Liu made the pledge in a remark over the weekend during his two-day visit to UNN, while inspecting facilities at ACE-SPED to explore strategic collaboration opportunities with the centre.

Some of the facilities inspected during the tour at ACE-SPED include; SEM Laboratory, the 3D Innovation Laboratory, the Centre of Competence for Digital Education and Content Creation Studio among others.

Our correspondent reports that, the
Ambassador who was on a two-day visit to UNN was led to the centre by the Vice-Chancellor of UNN, Prof. Simon Ortuanya.

The ambassador expressed satisfaction that the centre had laboratories that are multi disciplinary that can serve a broad range of research, development and innovation, both in the academia and industries.

“Taiwan will will collaborate to improve the centre especially in high tech electronics, biomedical engineering product development, nurturing startups and incubation as well as in commercialising of research work done in the centre.

“I will lead a scholarly delegation from Taiwan to UNN to further fine-tune areas of the collaboration,” he said.

He expressed delight on UNN’s approach to international cooperation and the prospects of long-term partnerships that would benefit students, researchers, and staff in addressing shared development challenges.

“I am delighted that UNN is taking the lead to attend Smart-City Summit and Expo event in Taiwan, I have no doubt it will foster more partnerships with Taiwan both in academia and industry,” he said.

At ACE-SPED, the Director, Prof Emenike Ejiogu, showcased the Centre’s advanced research infrastructure and innovation capacity, providing a platform for discussions on joint research projects, academic exchange programmes, and institutional development between UNN and Taiwanese institutions.

Ejiogu informed the Ambassador that the centre had been invited to participate in the Smart-City Summit and Expo, in Taipei, scheduled to be held on March 17 to 20th, 2026.

” We will be delighted to collaborate with Taiwan in areas of high-tech electronics, biomedical engineering product development, nurturing startups and incubation as well as in commercialising of research work done in the centre, among others,”Ejiogu said

The director, applauded Prof Simon Ortuanya, the Vice-chancellor of UNN for always given special attention to the centre.

“We thank the VC who made the visit possible which has provided the centre an opportunity to showcase the capacity and quality of its programmes, research and innovations in the centre,” he said.

Earlier, Ortuanya described the visit of the ambassador as part of UNN’s broader vision to deepen international research and innovation partnerships in order to reposition the university as a leading hub for policy-relevant research and innovation in Africa.

According to him, collaboration with Taiwanese institutions will extend beyond security studies to include engineering, technology, agriculture, and other strategic areas.

“Our goal is to use the UNN as a base for spreading a mutually-beneficial relationship between African universities and Taiwanese institutions,” the Vice-Chancellor said.

“We will also establish a Centre for African Studies in Taiwan so that the world will know what we are doing,” he added.

It would recalled that, the ambassador’s visit was as a result of discussions held during UNN-VC official visit to Taiwan in October 2025 which aligned with UNN’s plan to establish an International Centre for African and Taiwan Studies, aimed at promoting education, research, innovation, business development, and cross-regional collaboration.