The Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation (STI), Dr Ogbonnaya Onu, has charged researchers and institutions to solve societal problems and improve quality of life of Nigerians with their research outputs.
The Minister gave the charge at the two day Experts’ Forum on STI organised by the National Centre for Technology Management (NACETEM) on Wednesday in Abuja.
He said it was proved that groundbreaking research and commercialisation of research outcomes were bringing a paradigm shift in today’s world, that any nation wishing to grow must opt for solution-based research.
Onu maintained that there was no better time for research than now when Nigerians were trying to look inwards to find alternatives by using locally-developed technologies to address national challenges.
“This is only achievable in an enabling environment where research outcomes are pushed into commercialisation stage with little challenges,’’ he said.
Represented by Mr Francis Adebisi, the Director, Human Resources Management of the Ministry, Onu noted that in recognition of the current global trend, Buhari’s administration refocused on diversifying the economy by embracing STI.
He said the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP), a Medium Term Plan for 2017-2020, and Nigeria Economic Sustainability Plan (NESP) approved by the Federal Executive Council in June 2020 were developed by Buhari administration.
He said others also developed were the National Poverty Reduction and Growth Strategy (NPRGS) and National Development Plan(NDP), 2021-2025, all for the purpose of restoring economic growth.
Onu noted that all the policies recognised the need to leverage STI and build a viable research and knowledge-based economy.
Prof Okechukwu Ukwuoma, Dirctor-General of NACETEM, said the forum was designed to host relevant stakeholders in STI ecosystem to have robust discussions such as role of STI in wealth creation among others.
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He said it was to help deepen the knowledge of law makers, policy makers and other stakeholders on STI oversight functions, expose legislators and others to the roles of STI in addressing national security challenges.
Ukwuoma reiterated that in moving Nigeria’s economy from resource-based to knowledge and innovation-driven towards reclaiming the nation’s pride of place among comity of nations, there was no better tool than STI.
“Thus, this makes this forum much more critical as the deployment of STI for short-term, medium term and long term benefits of Nigeria and the need to robustly fund STI would be its focus.
Mr Haastrup Olatunji, Chairman of the Governing Board of NACETEM, said that the `critical mass’ of overall research and development expenditure needed to achieve research excellence in any country was mostly set above 15 per cent of GDP.
“Figures from World Bank show that Africa produces below one per cent of global scientific knowledge, despite being inhabited by 16 per cent of the global population.
“This trajectory has to change and conscious efforts must be made towards achieving this,’’ Olatunji said.
(NAN)
