Samuel Bello, Abuja
Director-General of the National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP), Dr DanAzumi Mohammed Ibrahim, says that Nigeria imports over 90 percent of the technology that powers the economy.
Ibrahim stated this yesterday in Abuja at a stakeholders meeting with coordinators of Intellectual Property and Technology Transfer Offices (IPTTOs) established in some knowledge institutions across the country, in order to ascertain their level of progress.
The DG, who was represented by the Director, Consultancy Services Department of NOTAP, Dr Adamu Abu Tandama, said that a lot of research results in Nigeria knowledge institutions are laying waste on the shelves because most of the researchers engage in academic research for the purposes of publication and carrier progression, instead of engaging in demand driven research to solve social challenges.
“Nigeria imports over 90% of the technology that powers her economy and, for a country that wants to be one of the top ten economies in the world, we cannot depend totally on technologies coming from other countries when we have the knowledge infrastructure that can address our technological needs,” he said.
Earlier, representative of the provost of the Institute, Dr Nyitamen, who is also the Dean, Faculty of Engineering, said NOTAP is very critical not only in development of Science, Technology and Innovation but to the development of the country and needs the support and collaboration of institutions with similar functions to succeed.
He said that prior to the establishment of IPTTO in the institution, nobody was talking about patenting; but the center has exposed the institution’s researchers to the importance of protecting their works.