By Sylvester Thompson
Expert Supervisor at the Centre of Excellence in Science, Technology and Innovation (STI), African Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD), Prof. Olalekan Akinbo, has said STI can fast-track Nigeria’s economic growth if right policies are in place.
Akinbo, who spoke in a telephone interview from his Abuja base expressed optimism that Nigeria can harness STI to drive it’s socio-economic development.
According to him, such policies should stimulate the implementation of STI by encouraging innovations, and that the indigenous technology should capable of addressing specific needs of different clusters within the socioeconomic groups in the country.
He advised that for STI to impact on national development, government should also grant incentives to companies in order to boost their interest of investing in indigenous inventions and innovations in the country.
He said it was important that tax cuts be granted to industries to motivate them target specific indigenous inventions and innovations that might not necessarily be meant for international but national markets.
“By so doing, businesses shall understand that the returns on investment would not be global, but locally driven.
“They will also know that the amount of tax they pay for innovations they commercialise would be Nigerian focused, that Nigerians would benefit when it impacts their socioeconomic growth and wellbeing.
“This is very critical because most of these industries, it is the tax levied on inventions and innovations, or on infrastructure, that would either motivate or discourage them from investing for profitability.” Akinbo, said.
He re-iterated that if tax cuts were given and industries saw the benefits as not accruing to the global market, but targeted at meeting local challenges and to help socioeconomic growth of the country, they would be willing to invest.
“Government should also create an enabling environment that supports STI by building a sustainable infrastructure that can help Upstarts and those inventions that are not coming from a conventional proof of concept.
“They should be those ones that are coming to meet the needs of individuals, the needs of a specific group and the yearnings at the grassroots.” he said.
The NEPAD expert, maintained that such innovations were need driven, that if infrastructures which could facilitate such innovations were in place, it would be easier to impact the wellbeing of ordinary Nigerians.
He also advised that government should put in place institutions that are focused on technology upgrade, meaning innovations that have been proven to meet the needs of the people and their scalability.
Akinbo, said that to harness the benefits of STI for socioeconomic growth, government should take locational advantage that an innovation could bring to a particular environment into consideration.
According to him, government should focus policies on such environments that had beneficial prospects that would enrich the lives of the people there.
“What I’m saying is that there are products which can easily be developed in an environment where the raw materials are locally sourced, and this would automatically cut off the cost of transportation.
“Innovations that use technologies where raw materials are locally sourced should be located in that environment, which would now become the hub where the industry can develop that innovation to a scalable commercial level.
“Products developed from the innovations would then be transported across the country where the raw materials are not available, but the finished product can benefit the people of other geographical location,’’ he said.
The STI expert also underscored the need for good infrastructures such as good road connectivity that would allow seamless transportation, and by rail depending on how massive the production was.
He said the government should also make water readily available to be used for developing the innovations, adding that these also formed part of what was needed as additional incentives for industries.
Financial security, protection of intellectual property rights of an innovator, according to him are as important areas government must take cognizance of in making STI work for the benefit of ordinary Nigerians.
