Yinka Kolawole in Osogbo
The overseeing Director-General and Chief Executive Officer of the National Centre for Technology Management (NACETEM), Ile-Ife, Osun State. Mr. John Akintayo Omimakinde, has statead that the agency will always collaborate with institutions locally and globally to advance frontiers of knowledge with a view to accomplishing sustainable development.
Speaking yesterday at the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signing ceremony between the Nigerian Institute of Transport Technology (NITT) and NACETEM in Abuja, Omimakinde noted that in an age when knowledge changes at the speed of light, no organisation can afford to operate within its cocoon or work in isolation.
He posited that the time Nigeria is currently facing calls for active interaction and engagement between and/or among institutions to achieve any meaningful development that would rub off on the society in terms of concrete impacts.
The director-general stated that for this reason, NACETEM has always been opened to collaborating with institutions locally and globally to advance frontiers of knowledge with a view to accomplishing development that will stand the test of time.
The NACETEM boss remarked that the 30 years of making impacts within the science, technology and innovation space, the agency had forged workable synergy with institutions such as SPRU, United Kingdom; UNU-MERIT, Netherlands; CeSTII, South Africa; NIPSS, Jos (Nigeria) among others.
He also made it cleared that recently, the agency entered into a collaboration with the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission while the agency networks within and outside Nigeria have always put the institution on its toes to operate in line with global best practices.
According to him “Today’s signing of the MOU is another step to underscore the significance of science, technology and innovation (STI) to all sectors of the economy. STI is a driver of sustainable development in all areas of life. It is therefore apposite to collaborate with other institutions operating within the STI space so as to cross-fertilize ideas and accelerate development in the society.”
He stated that: “Collaborating with NITT is an obviously easy decision to make because of the significance of the transport sector to Nigeria’s economy and the critical roles NITT plays within the sector. If NACETEM initiates knowledge for development, then it needs an institution such as NITT that is into transport technology to make huge impacts. After all, collaborative efforts help to make quantum leap.”
Omimakinde stated that the agency is fostering cooperation between the Institute and NACETEM in the area of technology transfer and adaptation in transport and logistics services.
Others, he said are data gathering and dissemination for operators, stakeholders and policy maker in the transport industry, joint research and development activities in the transport (and logistics) industry for improved capacity and products/services delivery.
He stressed that the implications is that agencies can leverage on one another’s strengths to save government resources in terms of capital flight by taking advantage of what is available in the country, adding that: “Inter-Agency collaboration thus becomes a handy tool to make more impacts at minimal costs.”
Also, in his remarks, the Chairman, NACETEM Governing Board, Sir Haastrup Adewale Olatunji, at the MOU signing ceremony said this was indeed a commendable move on the part of both institutions, as it shows that the government of the day is one and the same, working towards achieving collective aspirations.
He said as the chairman, Governing Board of NACETEM, “I want to assure NITT that this collaboration has the full backing of the Board of NACETEM, and we will do everything humanly possible to make it a huge success.
