Nigeria’s Minister of Science Technology and Innovation, Dr Adeleke Mamora says the ministry is focused on the basic demands and needs of Nigerians when executing it’s projects.
Dr Mamora stated this when he embarked on a facility tour of the Raw Material Research and Development Council’s Pilot Plant in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital.
The Pilot Plant complex houses a lot of Indigenous fabricated machines used for processing agricultural, and pharmaceutical raw materials that are sourced locally from different parts of Nigeria into finished products.
While inspecting the facility, The Minister commended the effort of the Raw Material Research and Development Council RMRDC and the level of creativity deployed at the complex.
“I’m privileged to visit this place and see all the fabrications done by our people, for our people, for the benefits of Nigerians and humanity in general. It is focused on demand, and to see how best we can make these available to our people for their benefits in various ways,” he said.
Dr Mamora further revealed that the government is engaged in multiple advocacy to ensure the gap between the innovators and investors is bridged.
The Minister added that many researchers had so far benefited from different government interventions.
The Director, Corporate Services Department of the Raw Material Research and Development Council, Mr Chucks Ngaha said that a lot of Organized Private Sector have been contacting the agency with the intention of investing.
“We have been able to demystify the aura of invincibility on access to useful raw materials like in the paint industry, the basic raw material which is acrylic, today are being locally made. A lot of people with this knowledge can set up paint industries even in their bedroom. It doesn’t have to be humongous and that is what we are doing for so many raw materials.
“We are trying to break the jinx
Of inaccessibility to raw materials so that it will be easier for more people to come on board and those that are already producing will not go underground,” he explained.
Mr Ngaha added that as the government sponsors activities of the RMRDC, the agency in turn provides quality services to Nigerians at a highly subsidized rate.
He therefore called on Nigerians to be informed that with the intervention of the Raw Materials Research and Development Council, manufacturing will be simplified.
N.O
