Dele Ogbodo in Abuja
The federal government through the National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP), a parastatal under the Federal Ministry of Science Technology, has said it saved N192 billion through technology transfer agreements signed between the country and multinational companies, between 2010 and 2016.
Making the disclosure at a media briefing in Abuja, the Director General of the agency, Mr. Ibrahim Dan’Azumi, said the money would have gone out of Nigeria as capital flight.
In the break down, he said, N188.2 billion was saved between 2010 and 2014 while $10million, was saved between 2015 and this year, adding that between 2010 and 2014, NOPTAP saved for Nigeria N188.2 billion that would have gone out of this country as capital flight.
Explaining how the money was saved, he said: “When an agreement from companies outside the country comes to us, we look at the content and if we see anywhere we think Nigerians can handle we insist Nigerians should handle that.
“Sometimes we take preregistration visit to the companies and they usually would want us to believe most times that these companies don’t exist. That could be a source of capital flight.”
According to the DG, more than 90 percent of country’s economy is driven by foreign technologies, adding: the consequence of this is that, Nigeria loses a lot of money annually through these channels.
He said: “We cannot just fold our arms and watch this to continue. Nigeria cannot develop technologically if we allow this to continue.
“If you see the huge amount of money that is leaving this country through foreign technologies, you will be sad. And no patriotic Nigerian will allow this to continue.”
The current foreign exchange impasse, the DG said, was partly also caused by capital flight from use and adoption of foreign technologies.
However, he said Nigeria for now could not do without foreign technologies as research institutes lack the capacity to churn out appropriate technologies to power the economy.
The DG said: “Most of our research institutes, universities and polytechnics do not yet have good and up-to- date labs to carry our researches that will produce such technologies that could march those produced abroad. This is why we must allow foreign technologies till such a time when we will be able to produce our own.”
According to him, very poor culture of intellectual property among Nigerian researchers is also contributing to the country’s underdevelopment technology.
He said: “In the last three years, we have been able to send patent applications to Patent Registry and over 40 certificates have been issued to science and tech researchers in the country.”
According to him, 38 Technology Transfer and Intellectual Property offices have been established across Nigeria in the past few years, adding that 3 have been commissioned.
