The management of the Abia State College of Health Sciences and Management Technology (ABSCOHMAT), Aba, has reveled that come October 2026, the institution will begin commercial production of biogas.
The Rector of the institution, Aloysius Ekeleme Okezie, while speaking to newsmen, said that inasmuch as he met the school at a low stage, the management under him has intensified efforts to ensure that the effects of the new Abia, a vision of Governor Alex Otti, are seen and replicated in the institution.
Explaining what led to the vision, Okezie said that when he became the rector of the school, he was greeted by a mountain of refuse and other degradables that cost him ₦750,000 to evacuate the refuse.
“At the process of doing that, we began to think deeper, and while thinking, we discovered that our male hostel (Bakassi Hotel), has a large soakaway, and each hostel here has a different soakaway, where sewage is dumped into.
“These waste are veritable ingredients for biogas and energy promotion. When I thought of how much it’ll cost to dispose of this human waste and other wastes, I decided to accept this innovation.
“I called the Department of Science Laboratory Technology to go and do the necessary research on it, because I’ve done mine so that we can look at both and come to a conclusion on what to do.
“So, after that we now have digestion 1-4, as they’re under incubation, and after incubation, we can do the needful and begin marketing part of it to generate funds.”
He said that when fully commercialised, it has the capacity of helping us to generate up to 100 million naira yearly for the institution, which he said will be a massive and unprecedented achievement for the state.
“By next month, we’ll start production, as we’re currently incubating. At the second month of incubation, we’ll begin production. We’ll be presenting this for a national exhibition on science and research projects, and I’m sure it’s going to win an award.
“There are three digesters capable of generating ₦300 million, for us in one year. We’ll commercialise the gas production; possibly we can even use this process to create a nearby public toilet that’ll be thoroughly clean, which will help in fighting open defecation as well as help us generate raw materials for our biogas.”
He said that the biogas will help in the generation of electricity for the institution as well, adding, “It’ll help us in power generation, as well as help us make money through marketing of the gas.”
On the plans for the remodelling of the institution, the rector, after a tour of some ongoing projects, thanked the Governor and stressed that a whole lot of the mushroom buildings that occupied spaces will be removed and replaced with mostly larger buildings for both hostel and learning and administrative purposes.
“We’ll remove this small building here and build a standard office for staff. We’ll designate schools and departments at the right places in the premises. This senate lodge you’re seeing will be demolished, and a better building will take over.
“After having a school of medical engineering, we have plans for more schools. We’re having dialysis issues, and no school is offering something about it.
“We’ve proposed to start such a school here, as well as dental therapy. No other school is offering medical imaging and dispensing opticianry. We’ve established it and equipped it, and NBTE came here to see them and gave kudos that it’s number one in the South-East.”
