From Samuel Bello, Abuja
The Federal Government has restated its commitment to improving funding for research and innovation in the country through the institutionalisation of the research and innovation fund.
Minister of Science and Technology, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, while receiving the president and officials of the Nigerian Academy of Science (NAS) in his office yesterday in Abuja, disclosed that a bill already drafted for the establishment of the National Research and Innovation Council as well as the National Research and Innovation Fund would soon be made public.
He advised that the commercialisation of research findings be adopted in the public and private sectors to improve findings and also reduce the level of importation in the country.
The minister noted that the economy needed to be moved away from just being a resource-based economy to a knowledge-based innovation-driven one, whereby every possible drop in the prices of commodities would be mitigated.
NAS president, Prof. Mosto Onuoha, told the minister that the academy’s 40th anniversary celebrations would coincide with its annual meeting later in the year.
He pleaded for financial support from the ministry in hosting the event because the bill would be too much for the academy to bear.