‘Absence of indigenous technologies worries NOTAP’

Over 90% of the technologies that drive the Nigerian economy are foreign technologies, Director-General of National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion(NOTAP),Dr Danazumi Ibrahim, has said. He spoke in Lagos at a forum organised by the Nigerian Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (NASME) where he also said Nigeria paid huge sums of foreign exchange […]

Over 90% of the technologies that drive the Nigerian economy are foreign technologies, Director-General of National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion(NOTAP),Dr Danazumi Ibrahim, has said.
He spoke in Lagos at a forum organised by the Nigerian Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (NASME) where he also said Nigeria paid huge sums of foreign exchange as technology transfers to the owners of the foreign technologies every year.
He emphasised that the foreign technologies were developed by universities and research institutions abroad.
According to him, weak Intellectual Property Rights(IPR) culture among Nigerian scientists and researchers was largely responsible for the failure of the country to measure up with other nations in terms of technology.
He said his agency was currently working hard to reverse the trend with a view to ensuring promotion of indigenous technologies and innovations.
He disclosed part of the measures was the recent introduction of local vendor policy for software license agreement designed to encourage the growth of SMEs in the information and communication technology sector of the Nigerian economy.  “The policy ensures that a local vendor company must be appointed to be involved in the implementation of the software license agreement and must be paid a minimum of 40% of the annual technical support and maintenance fees in Naira,” he added.