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Patrick Chitumba, [email protected]

THE Midlands State University (MSU) has launched a new retail outlet to drive  innovation(OD)in line with the transformative Education 5.0 policy.

The OD will serve as a store-front to sell some of the products created by MSU and other universities as part of the education 5.0 innovation drive.

MSU is driving industrialisation through the implementation of heritage-based Education 5.0, which is transforming the tertiary institution from producing job seekers to graduates                    that create jobs through goods and services.

Products such as fruit juices, chemicals, sanitisers, cleaning detergents, personal protective clothing and stock feed products among others can be bought at the OD shop.

From the beginning of 2018, the Government has shown commendable seriousness towards the setting up of innovation hubs at six public universities. 

This was aimed at directing the higher and tertiary education sector towards becoming actively involved in the revival of the country’s economy through the provision of technical and research-based solutions.

Higher and Tertiary Education, Innovation, Science and Technology Minister, Professor Amon Murwira, recently opened the retail outlet in the Gweru city centre.

“A country is developed and defended through knowledge and skill and every faculty must result in a technological and industrial infrastructure. This infrastructure that we are looking at is directly linked — in terms of its work, to the Faculty of Business Sciences, which is the retail, but behind it, is a lot of engineering and chemistry and all these people who are making the products,” he said.

Prof Murwira applauded MSU Vice Chancellor, Professor Victor Ngonidzashe Muzvidziwa, for demonstrating teamwork through several projects that have been successfully launched and implemented by the higher learning institution.

“I am very happy that we have animal feed products from the Chinhoyi University of Technology, the University of Zimbabwe and traditional grains straight from our factory at the Great Zimbabwe University,” he said.

The Second Republic has championed the production of goods and services where universities are now producing cooking oil, fruit juices, marula wine and many other things.

The heritage-based Education 5.0 is not only biased towards Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics fields but cuts across all disciplines.

Since its commencement in 2019, the heritage-based Education 5.0 philosophy, has revitalised higher learning institutions as catalysts for socio-economic development in a knowledge-driven economy.

Speaking at the same event, the chairperson of the Midlands State University Council, Mrs Mabel Mwamuka applauded Prof Murwira for his immense contribution to the socio-economic development of the nation through education.

The event closed with a tour of part of the projects at the University’s Innovation Hub.