Research Fair Aligns with Economic Growth Vision – TETFund Executive Secretary

The Executive Secretary of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), Mr Sonny Echono, has stated that the recently held TETFund National Research Fair and Exhibition aligns with TETFund’s vision of leveraging technology to drive national economic growth.

Speaking in an interview in Abuja on Monday, Echono emphasised that the initiative aims to transform Nigeria’s economy through research, innovation, and entrepreneurship.

Between 18 and 21 November, TETFund organised a tech fair, showcasing research outcomes from beneficiary institutions and private innovators, while also linking them to industries for commercialisation.

According to Echono, the expo was built on three key realisations, the most significant being that “The most assured path for sustainable transformation of the nation’s economy is research and innovation.”

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“It lies in harnessing our intellectual assets, converting those into products and services to address our national challenges, shortfalls, and also to exploit the opportunities that exist in various sectors of our economy.

“So, we strongly believe that research, development, innovation, and entrepreneurship have a major role to play in transforming this economy from a consumptive to a productive one,” he said.

The TETFund boss noted that despite substantial investments in research over the years, many innovations had remained confined to bookshelves and academic papers.

He stressed that the expo was designed to bridge this gap by “showcasing Nigerian-made inventions across various industries and connecting them with the right market.”

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Echono highlighted that the initiative drew inspiration from the success stories of countries such as China, India, Malaysia, Vietnam, Brazil, Singapore, and South Korea, which have utilised local talent and innovation to drive economic growth.

“Over the years, TETFund has invested significant resources in supporting research programmes, leading to numerous discoveries.

“Unfortunately, not many Nigerians have seen these products. Many of them remain on bookshelves or in drawers, instead of being on supermarket shelves for consumers.

“However, through our partnership with one of our innovators, we began to see these products being demonstrated on farms and in the field.

“This awakened us to the need to scale up these efforts. We decided to create a national database of innovators to track and support their contributions,” he explained.

Echono revealed that the Fund implemented a competitive selection process for the fair, shortlisting entries from over 2,700 submissions to around 600–700 participants due to space limitations.

The event brought together researchers, manufacturers, policymakers, venture capitalists, and industry experts to assess and refine these innovations, ensuring they met commercial standards.

“This was reinforced by the fact that Nigeria has vast untapped resources and a large number of unemployed youths.

“We are not creating enough jobs, yet we spend huge amounts on importing goods, services, and even food.

“So, we initiated this national exhibition to provide a platform where anyone with a viable innovation could showcase their work.

“We created a competitive process, received more than 2,700 entries, and finally selected around 600–700 participants,” he stated.

A major highlight of the TETFund National Research Fair and Exhibition was the issuance of patents to selected innovators, reinforcing the Fund’s commitment to intellectual property protection and commercialisation.