Minister of science and technology, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, disclosed during a facility visit to Omatek Computers and solar energy assembly plants in Lagos yesterday that the federal government is working on a bill to give constitutional backing to the establishment of National Research and Innovation Fund (NRIF).
According to Onu, this will create a pool of funding to facilitate commercialisation of scientific and technological researches for Nigeria’s industrialisation.
“The Fund would help in funding research and innovation in Nigeria stating that there was so much innovations that needed to be funded,” he stated.
Onu said following the establishment of the National Innovation Council (NIC) under the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, after thirty years of the enunciation of the science, technology and innovation (STI) Policy, the current government needed a law to ensure that future administrations in the country would not toy with the Fund.
He said the science, technology and innovation policy came into being in 1986 but previous governments could not inaugurate the National Innovation Council (NIC). Onu added that President Muhammadu Buhari is the chair of the Council and it has 15 ministers as members.
He, however, identified lack of funding and effective coordination as bane of technological development in Nigeria, stressing that the current administration was keen in ensuring that it deepens research and development (R&D) that would unlock the nation’s economy prosperity through effective partnership with indigenous players in the S&T industry.
He noted that for many years, Nigeria has remained a mono-economy relying on oil as the major source of foreign exchange earnings, stressing that “the current administration is bent on leveraging information and communication technology and science and technology (S&T) as an enabler of economic development and to diversify the economy.”
He also expressed the readiness of the federal government to work with the country’s indigenous technology company. Omatek Ventures Plc, on the latter’s target to reduce power consumption by households, businesses and government by 85 per cent.
