… Onu calls for Nigerian global competitiveness in STI
By Seun Adams
The Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu has said Federal Government will forge a strategic alliance with Kano state government to enable critical stakeholders jump-start the development of Science, Technology and Development (STI) in the state.
The Minister made the disclosure during a working visit to Bayero University Kano (BUK) on Monday in Kano.
The alliance, according to the Ministry’s Head of Press/PR, Josephine Ademu, in will birth an effective coordination so that tertiary academic research institutes could engage the Organised Private Sector (OPS) in the development of abundant agricultural, mineral and human resources in the state.
According to the Minister, the FMSTI will work closely with both the government and people of the state in harnessing the power of STI to harvest the abundant resources of the State for the benefit of all.
Onu said frantic efforts are being made to ensure that the OPS and R&D/Academic institutions forge strategic alliances that emphasize more on industry & services demand-driven R&D programmes, projects and activities.
The benefits of the strategic alliance will ensure that scientific research findings in our laboratories can easily be converted into products and services needed in our markets and shops. Adding that Intellectual property can then be protected through patents, with tremendous financial reward for the scientists and institutions involved.
On the recent change of name of the Ministry to Federal Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (FMSTI) from the previous Federal Ministry of Science and Technology (FMST), he stressed that the ministry is now the custodian of innovation development in Nigeria and for continuous quality improvement of existing traditional technologies.
He informed the BUK faculty that Kano State has been selected as the Headquarters of the Technology and Innovation Centre for Global Competitiveness (TICGCOM) in the North-West Zone of the country.
Earlier, the Vice Chancellor of Bayero University Kano, Prof. Sagir Adamu, enumerated the giant strides of the University in areas of research and innovations, and he therefore reiterated the commitment of university communities to partner with the ministry to achieve technological advancement.
In another development, Onu, called for a renaissance of Nigerian Technological Innovations, Products and services, to be of global standards, during a working visit to the Governor of Kano state, Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, adding that the visit was to intimate the governor and people of Kano state on the establishment of a Technology Innovation Centre for global competitiveness.
He stressed the need for intellectual property protection, adding that achieving this will encourage more innovators contribute their quota to the development of Science, Technology and Innovation in Nigeria.
The Minister said that the protection of Intellectual property will enhance the growth of Medium, Small and Micro scale enterprises and effectively fight poverty.
He said the nation urgently needs the commercialization of research findings, thus turning these research results into goods and services available to Nigerians and for export. These he added, will lead to more wealth creation for Nigeria.
On National economic cohesion, Dr. Onu said that the sensitization exercise will help enhance the fact that all parts of Nigeria are self-sustainable based on the natural raw materials available to them.
Onu hailed the efforts of the governor for his efforts in making Kano state a bastion of peace and socio-economic development.
Ganduje in his remarks, said that the surest way of making Nigeria’s teeming population an asset is by proper implementation of Science, Technology and Innovation policies.