The Director General of National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP), Mr. DanAzumi Mohammed Ibrahim has called on African Countries to embrace the culture of innovation for sustainable economic development of the continent.
Ibrahim made the call while flagging off the 2022 Commemoration of African Day for Technology and Intellectual Property Rights held in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital.
The DG who stated that the difference between developed and developing countries of the world was advancement in technology, called on all African countries to invest more in research and development.
Ibrahim noted that Nigeria has talent and facilities that if properly channelled would gear up economic development.
“What we are trying to do is to bring the academia and the industry together, so that we will begin to see Nigerian research and development efforts translate into product and services. That is what will ensure economic development of the system. We cannot continuously import technologies into the country. We cannot continuously import finished products and services from outside the country.
“We have talents, we have facilities, what we need to do is to channel this and begin to see our research and development efforts translating into product and services,” he said.
The DG further stated that, while carrying out the statutory responsibility of the Office, it was observed that the culture of Intellectual Property Protection within the knowledge institutions were low, hence the need to establish Intellectual Property and Technology Transfer Offices (IPTTOs) to encourage inventive and innovative activities in the knowledge establishments.
He said the act has brought about increase in the number of patency as against the educational institution norm of conducting research for career progression.
“With the intervention of NOTAP, the industries and academia are now coming together. The industries have started using Nigerians to undertake credible research and development on their behalf. And they have began to see the products of R&D undertaken by Nigerians which are of value to them. so now gradually you are bringing the academia and the industry together.
“Now you will hopefully begin to see Nigerian products coming out from Nigerian research and development efforts because the researcher will do his best to come with the prototype, it’s the private sector that will scale it up to produce product or services. So now the private sector have begin to come in, that is the beginning of our success story,” Ibrahim said.
The NOTAP DG expressed regret that the Secondary and vocational schools that were major partners in commemorating the African day with technology and innovation exhibitions were not part of the event as schools were just resuming after a long break.
The Head of Programmes of Innova8 hub, a non profit innovation driven organization, Dr. Obichi Obiajunwa who expressed his appreciation for the partnership emphasized the importance of collating data on the intensity of R&D for proper planning in the country.
“Two years after the establishment of innov8 it has worked with over a hundred start ups, sponsored by organizations like the Innovation Fellowship for Aspiring Inventors and Researchers IFAIR, TETFUND, we’ve been able to develop prototype, technologies out of mere ideas, so lecturers, researchers, young Nigerians that have ideas come to this place and then able to go out with high fidelity prototypes and minimum viable products.
“This is what before now they would simply think about China, but we are bridging that gap and solving the problem for our country,” Dr Obiajunwa said.
A Chief lecturer from Federal Polytechnic Bida Dr Usman Nda-Umar who was a participant at the event emphasized the need for government at all levels to improve funding for Research and Development.
Hauwa Abu
