Chinyere Igwegbe Inaugurated APWEN’s President, Pledges to Focus on Innovation 

Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja

The Association of Professional Women Engineers of Nigeria (APWEN) at the weekend inaugurated its new President, Chinyere Igwegbe, as the 19th head of the organisation, with the new leadership underscoring the need to focus on research, development, and innovation.

At the investiture which took place in Abuja, Igwegbe said that APWEN under her leadership will encourage solution-driven innovation that addresses pressing national and global challenges – energy sustainability, environmental resilience, water access, infrastructure, digital transformation, and climate adaptation.

Igwegbe argued that prototypes must evolve into products while ideas must translate into enterprises, pledging to create platforms to showcase and connect the body’s innovations to industry and investors.

“Our interventions must positively affect our immediate communities. We will champion practical, natural, and sustainable solutions to environmental and societal challenges. Whether through clean energy initiatives, waste-to- wealth innovations, food mitigation strategies, or sustainable construction practices, APWEN must remain visible where solutions are needed most.

“Importantly, we will institutionalise a robust framework for tracking and documenting APWEN’s impact over the years. Data matters. Evidence matters. Legacy matters. We will strengthen our monitoring and evaluation systems to capture measurable outcomes of our STEM outreaches, policy advocacy, professional development programs, and community interventions. What we measure, we can improve,” she pointed out.

Besides, she pledged to advance girl child exposure and expand STEM  programmes, including structured robotic competitions for secondary school girls and advanced robotics competitions for university students.

For young engineers, she argued that technical knowledge alone is not enough, explaining that employability requires communication skills, leadership competence, digital literacy, entrepreneurial thinking, and adaptability. “We will organise workshops, webinars, and mentorship sessions focused on employability skills, leadership development, and industry readiness,” she pledged.

According to her, APWEN under her leadership must think differently, act boldly and innovate sustainably to address Nigeria’s challenges in energy, infrastructure, digital transformation and climate adaptation.

In his remarks, President of the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE), Ali Rabiu, stated that APWEN must deliberately engage the federal government, state governments, the National Assembly, development partners and the private sector to secure policy support and sustainable funding for science education.

“I therefore challenge APWEN to intensify structured engagement with government at all levels, the National Assembly, development partners and the private sector to advocate for increased and ring-fenced funding for STEM education, particularly for girls,” he said.

He also called for scholarships and grants for female engineering students, research and innovation funding for women-led solutions, stronger industry–academia linkages and the integration of engineering mentorship programmes into national education frameworks.

According to him, engineering perspectives must be embedded in policymaking processes, especially in areas affecting women, girls and young professionals.

He stressed that gender inclusion in engineering is not optional but a development necessity, noting that Nigeria’s development priorities in infrastructure, industrialisation and digital transformation cannot be achieved without women playing central roles in leadership and innovation.

Delivering her welcome remarks, the outgoing APWEN President, Adebisi Osim, described her two-year tenure as a period of “bold actions, transformative impacts and unbreakable spirit,” noting that the association recorded significant growth in membership, partnerships and professional development initiatives across the country.

She said APWEN expanded its chapters, strengthened collaborations with local and international organisations, and implemented programmes that promoted innovation, inclusivity and empowerment in engineering.

Osim said the association’s interventions in STEM education, leadership development and community outreach had created lasting impact, particularly among young people and women.

She added: Our members increased with a growth from 43 to 45 chapters and collegiate chapters increased from 29 universities to 31. It is interesting to note that all effort towards membership drive is yielding positive results and our community of professional engineers is growing.”

On her part, the guest speaker at the ceremony, Managing Director of Midwestern Oil & Gas Ltd, Elozino Olaniyan, described gender inclusion as an economic imperative rather than a social gesture, warning that Nigeria risks losing productivity and innovation if women remain underrepresented in engineering and technical roles.

She said recent global and national data showed persistent gender gaps in science participation and leadership, stressing that such imbalances translate into lost growth opportunities for the economy.

Olaniyan urged stakeholders to adopt deliberate, multi-sector strategies to close the gaps, including strengthening science education pipeline, transforming workplace culture, expanding access to capital, enforcing inclusive policies and reshaping public narratives about women in engineering.