Adedayo Akinwale
The federal government on Monday said the Islamic Development Bank‎ in Saudi Arabia has agreed to help Nigeria in the Commercialisation of research findings.
The Minister of Science and Technology, Dr. OgbonnayaOnu disclosed this at a press conference in Abuja.
The minister, who expressed concern over technology gap in Nigeria, noted that countries that are doing very well paid attention to science and technology.
He said that the only way to get the best is when Nigeria starts paying crucial attention to science and technology.
According to him, “We are very happy that President Muhammadu Buhari is convinced on this and he’s giving us the necessary support to make sure that this is achieved. I visited three countries, the first country I visitedwas Saudi Arabia; we went to Saudi Arabia at the invitation of the president of Islamic Development Bank (IDB).
“We entered into detailed discussions with them. They were very interested in the work we are doing here, on the area of commercialisation of research findings. Even though we are not investing much as a nation on research and innovation, our research institutes and agencies had been working hard and many of them have come up with research findings, some are patented and many of these have gotten to a level where they should be commercialised.‎”
Onu noted that many Nigerians are looking for job and the present administration wants all Nigerians who want to work to do so. “Commercialisation leading to creating wealth, producing what we need, it will be creating jobs for our people and it will also create wealth for the nation and for our GDP. It will also help fight poverty because any person who is unemployed will also get a job. The IDB will also use the resources of the bank to assist us in this regard.
“The bank said they will look into this proposal and who will be in the position to help other countries that may need our assistance regarding the level of our development.” the minister added.
According to him, “we have a lot of technology gaps in the country. If you look at the chemical industry, we are technically not there. We need to be producing back at home, we don’t produce; petrochemical we are not there, if you look at iron and steel, we are not there. If you look at almost all areas, we are very weak in terms of technology capability for a nation that is aspiring.
“If a great nation is assembled in the world, Nigeria should be among. These are the things that happened in the past, and we want to support our president to reverse all that and we cannot continue to re-invent the way the philosophy behind this initiative,” he said.
