By Mohammed Mohammed
The need for African countries to look inward in the development of the region using Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) came to the fore today in Abuja as the Executive Vice Chairman/Chief Executive, National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI) Prof Mohammed Haruna, on behalf the Federal Government, agreed to work with Ugandan Embassy in Nigeria in the areas of bilateral strategic partnership on technology transfer, agro processing, renewable energy amongst others.
The agreement was reached when the Uganda High Commissioner to Nigeria, Amb. Nelson Ocheger, paid a courtesy call to NASENI in Abuja, seeking possible areas of collaborations with the agency.
Receiving the delegation in his office after tour of the Agency’s facilities, Prof. Haruna, said the time had come for African leaders to look inward and to work together with fellow African countries to develop the continent using their local resources, technology, human capital, including patronage of goods and services produced within the African continent.
According to Haruna, “benefiting from each other’s advancements in technology and innovation is what will take Africa to where we want to be. Other continents do not want us to surpass them because we are their markets.”
He said he believed that the founding fathers of NASENI had the ambition to halt over-dependence on other continents for technology, goods and services, that was why they set up the Agency in the first instance. He said “all it takes to develop the African region is to work by agreements and to embark on strategic partnership with other countries within the continent”
While presenting the achievements and interventions by the agency in power, agriculture, education and industries, he reiterated that the mandate of NASENI is to establish and nurture an appropriate and dynamic science and engineering infrastructure for achieving home-initiated and home-sustained industrialization through the development of relevant processes, capital goods and equipment necessary for job creation, national economic well-being and progress.
Earlier in his remarks, the visitor, who was represented by the Charge d’affairs, Brig-Gen Herbert Mbonye said their mission in NASENI was to identify the possible areas of collaboration with the Nigerian government in areas of technology transfer, renewable energy, agro processing, capacity building, oil and gas and education amongst others.
He said the only way to achieve such cooperation was by signing Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Federal Government through NASENI, which according to him, has a similar mandate with Uganda Research and Development Institute (UREI ) to ensure transfer of appropriate technology for the development of the continent.
According to him, Uganda has taken time to diversify her economy especially in agro processing sector, adding that 85% of Uganda GDP was from agriculture. “We are number one in food processing in Africa and number three globally.” He explained.
“However, we may be in research and development, but technology on its own may end up in shelves. So, we need capacity building in utilizing these technologies. We Africans have a long way to go, but inter-African cooperation is the way forward, adding that the Western World don’t have interest in sharing their technologies and ideas with Africans but perhaps show off of success. We must work together to strengthen our economies”. He said.
While commending NASENI’s achievements, he said about 3, 200 Nigerian students are currently studying in Uganda and that there could be internship cooperation where NASENI sends staff to Uganda and vice visa for knowledge sharing.
SIGNED:Mr. Olusegun Ayeoyenikan, Deputy Director, Information.
