The Federal Polytechnic Ilaro in Ogun State, Nigeria, has manufactured a ventilator using locally sourced materials, The PUNCH reports.
Rector of the Institution, Olusegun Aluko, said it took the team seven days to produce the widely sought medical equipment.
Speaking on Television Continental on Thursday, he said, as the global demand for ventilator rises amid the coronavirus pandemic, he tasked a team of professionals including doctors and engineers in the institution to find a solution to the shortage of ventilators in the country.
He explained that after days of hard work, the team was able to design a functional ventilator with less than one million naira.
He said, “It took us one week through trial and error. Now there is no trail again; all the information that we used are documented. All we just need to do now is to feed them into the system, start mass producing and coupling them.
“If we can produce this one within one week, with all the research, that means in a matter of two days we should be able to produce one.”
He added that the institution has the wherewithal to train other members of staff of institutions across the country.
This, he believed, would help to expand the scope of mass production of ventilators in Nigeria.
Describing how the equipment works, an electrical engineer and member of the team, Oloyede Olukayode, said, “The system is an electro-mechanical device that uses electronic components because of its complexity.
“We have different voltages working for different parts of the system. We have the electric motor and we have the display and we have the device through which we get air or oxygen into the patient.”
The PUNCH reports that there are over 400 coronavirus cases in Nigeria and the availability of functional ventilators is indispensable in the treatment of the patients.

By Kayode Oyero