‘90 percent of technologies powering Nigeria are imported’ – NOTAP
Director General of the National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP), Dr. DanAumi Ibrahim said Friday that 90 percent of technologies which power Nigeria are imported. He said the situation calls for a drastic action to equip the educational sector and raise budding scientists. He spoke in Lagos during a workshop organized in partnership […]
Director General of the National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP), Dr. DanAumi Ibrahim said Friday that 90 percent of technologies which power Nigeria are imported.
He said the situation calls for a drastic action to equip the educational sector and raise budding scientists.
He spoke in Lagos during a workshop organized in partnership with PZ Cussons Nigeria to galvanize private sector’s participation to invest and regulate the inflow of foreign technology, commercialize innovations, research and development in building laboratories in tertiary institutions in Nigeria.
The DG said the development of technology is critical to the nation’s survival hence the need to massively fund the educational sector to raise many scientists.
He said, “If we look at the funding system, like any other sector, the educational sector is not well funded. So we feel the private sector also has responsibility to ensure that they make contribution towards the development of necessary human capacity to undertake credible research and development effort and also for them to provide the needed infrastructure so that the competences we have will be able to undertake credible research and development which could translate into technology".
He also commended the operations of PZ Cussons Nigeria in ensuring that research development proposal of master holders to attaining a PhD degree in the relevant industrial sector is well looked out for and sponsored.
Secretary to the State Government of Adamawa state, and former DG of NOTAP, Engr. Umar Bindir asserted that the motivation behind the project of equipping higher institutions with laboratory infrastructure is to aid the transfer of technology in the acquisition and application of knowledge.
He said, “The secret is to recognize that knowledge drives everything and once you recognize this then you establish viable knowledge system which are universities, research institutions, polytechnics and technical outfits. We must have a national fund that will support research and development at every level.”
Managing Director/CEO of PZ Cussons Nigeria, Mr. Christos Giannopoulos explained that not less than N50M has been spent on each institution’s laboratory because the equipment are highly scientific and complicated to operate.
According to him, the first phase of the project covered three institutions which are National Research Institute for Chemical Technology (NARICT), Zaria, University of Calabar and Modibbo Adama University of Technology (MAUTECH), Yola.