Owoeye received the award as a special guest at the 2025 induction of Graduate Engineers and the fifth Professor Chinedu Nebo Faculty Lecture held recently at the Faculty of Engineering Hall, Federal University Oye Ekiti.
Presenting the award, the institution’s Dean of Engineering Faculty, Prof. O. Akinsanmi, extolled Owoeye’s efforts in promoting the automobile engineering field and filling the yawning void in the reportage of the automobile industry in Nigeria.
Through Motoring World International, a publication he founded close to three decades ago, he stated that Owoeye has not only promoted the growth of the industry through his articles published in Motoring World International and other motoring media, but he has consistently advocated for developmental policy aimed at accelerating the growth of the auto industry.
On his part, addressing the graduate engineers in a lecture titled ‘Engineering Entrepreneurship: A partway to economic independence for Nigerian youth’, Owoeye counselled engineering graduates to embrace entrepreneurship, stating that the future belongs to those who can create solutions and turn them into thriving opportunities.
The world, Owoeye pointed out, has reached a point at which youths do not have to wait for government or traditional employment opportunities.
He stressed that engineering entrepreneurship is not just about creating business but also about solving problems, creating jobs and contributing to national development.
According to Owoeye, the embrace of engineering entrepreneurship by the nation’s graduate engineers remains a key to bridging the unemployment gap, driving technological innovation, boosting national economic growth and leveraging the digital economy.
On steps towards becoming an engineering entrepreneur, Owoeye advised graduate engineers to take several steps, including developing a problem-solving mindset, acquiring business and leadership skills, leveraging technology and innovations and building strategic networks and partnerships, among others.
He, therefore, admonished engineers to start thinking outside of the box and identify societal problems that require engineering-related solutions.
Owoeye maintained that the world has gone beyond acquiring certificates mainly for employment.
He stated: “Far more than developed nations, which have reached their crest of advancement, developing countries, including Nigeria, are havens of opportunities for engineering entrepreneurs.
“In the nation’s growing automobile industry, for instance, there are opportunities for automation, production of automobile local contents, local production of CNG conversion kits, local production of electric vehicle batteries as well as alternative energy for the running of commercial vehicles. Imagine innovating automatic solar charge for a commercial vehicle or tricycle, enabling running such vehicles without the need to buy petrol, diesel or even CNG.
“In the agriculture sector, there has been this problem of destruction of farmlands by herdsmen. It has been proven that cows are put off by high-pitched noise or alarm. An opportunity is, therefore, on hand for an engineering entrepreneur to innovate a device equipped with a sensor that could, from a distance, sense a cow or other animals and scare them away with a high-pitched alarm.”
