Minister of innovation, science and technology, Uche Godfrey Nnaji, has tasked researchers and innovators to view Nigeria’s challenges as catalysts to ensuring that their output in science, technology and innovations (STIs) are commercialised.
Nnaji made the appeal at the National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP’s) one -day sensitisation workshop on the “Commercialisation of Research Output as the Panacea for Nigeria’s Technological and Industrial Development”.
Nigeria’s science, technology and innovation sector has been flooded with viable research output which have ended up in “cabin shelves” without their commercialisation to provide solutions to societal needs.
To ensure a diversified national economy through the contribution of STIs, Nnaji tasked the stakeholders to “put on their thinking caps” and “taking necessary steps to ensure that research results from the vast knowledge base of the country are effectively commercialised, with the attendant benefits manifesting in the national economy.”
“Incidentally, no country that has ever developed and maximized its research potentials dare stop at the stage of generating research results. Instead, they would ensure that the cycle is completed by strategically pushing for the actual commercialisation of their viable research results,” the minister said.
Noting the ministry’s dedication to support NOTAP’s mandate to facilitate the commercialisation of research results, Nnaji said the government will explore all legitimate means to increase funding for STIs.
At the workshop, the president of the Association of Nigerian Inventors, Lawrence Nzenagu, advised the ministry to involve the industries, financial sector, and investors in its technology and innovation expo, other STI events, as well as the annualisation of workshops on the commercialisation of research outputs.
He said, “Commercialisation is very expensive. It is just like advertising. It is an investment you make and expect a return. The government needs to support agencies like NOTAP to go beyond R&D programmes and sensitisation. The science and technology industry should be supported. That is the only thing that can sell ‘Nigeria’ to the globe.
“The challenge of Nigerian Inventors is that we are not supported to develop our research outputs to acceptable products and services. The saying goes ‘the eyes eat before the mouth’. We need to strengthen our ‘tech pack’. The government needs to put real money in ‘tech pack’,” Nzenagu said.
However, the director-general of NOTAP, Idoreyin Imiyoho, said the ministry supports innovation via the Presidential Standing Committee on Invention and Innovation (PSCII).
“We also link Nigerian innovators to the Bank of Industry (BoI). It is left to BoI to assess innovators and decide which ones they should support,” the DG said.
