Technology Incubation Board Vows to Commercialise Research Innovation
In keeping with the Federal Government’s accelerated efforts at economic development, the National Board for Technology Incubation (NBTI) has pledged to bring technology research and innovation to the commercialization stage.
The Director-General of NBTI, Dr Uchenna Chukwu, said this on Tuesday at a one-day workshop titled “Technology Sourcing and Joint Research Commercialization Effort with Academia and Industry’’ in Abuja.
According to Chukwu, NBTI is also committed to providing logistics support for the commercialization of innovative tools in line with its mandate and for economic advancement.
She emphasised the importance of the workshop to take the nation’s technology research and innovation to a greater level in line with the Federal Government’s accelerated economic development agenda.
“This workshop underscores the desire of the government to bring about massive development through the promotion of research and development, skill acquisition and small-scale enterprise development.
“It is one of the strategies to further engender the benefit of science and technology in our dear country,’’ the director-general said.
According to her, the workshop will link the government, academia as knowledge providers, and industries for value-added technology outputs to achieve sustainable socio-economic development and economic sustainability policies.
She emphasised the need for research and commercialization of German market-driven technologies in all sectors of the Nigerian economy, thereby leading Nigeria to technological advancement and strong economic growth.
Chukwu recalled that the Federal Government had created NBTI to accelerate the initiative of incubating technologists for commercialization within and outside the country.
“With our mandate at NBTI to commercialise technological innovations and inventions as a tool to enhance the attainment of technological and industrial competitiveness.
“I can assure you that we are fully on track with the support of the government and stakeholders,” the NBTI boss said.
According to her, the Technology Incubation Programme (TIP), a brain child of NBTI, has supported and accelerated the successful development of so many start-ups and fledging companies
“ Many beneficiaries of the TIP are today free-standing profitable ventures, but there is a need to take more giant steps to make Nigeria better and promote entrepreneurship among Nigerians, which is what we are achieving with the TIPs.”
She also called on all state governments to lend their support to the incubation centres in their various states so as to collectively advance the Nigerian economy.
