The Director General of the National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP), Dr Danazumi Ibrahim, has expressed concern over the poor state of research in the nation’s education sector.
Ibrahim, who spoke in Abuja at the inaugural meeting of the Igbinedion University Industry-Academia Board Meeting, decried the situation where the country cannot grow with over 90 per cent of her technology imported into the country.
“The scenario in Nigeria is so pathetic. This is because like any other sector, the education sector is not well funded and when this happen, the research and development is most affected,” the NOTAP boss said.
“We don’t have enough funds to undertake research. Many academia used their own money to sponsor research and also publish to get promoted.
“So when you don’t have funds to undertake research, what comes out eventually may not translate to products and services that will benefit the country,’’ he added.
Ibrahim, who called for a strong partnership between the academia and the industry to promote research, said such collaboration will have the capacity to generate local technologies capable of translating into products and services for national development.
According to him, our quest to develop economically cannot be unconnected with the need to establish a very strong bond between the academia and the industry.
His words: “We have to generate our own technology; we need to begin to develop local technologies. We have competencies in the universities, polytechnics and research establishment.
“We cannot continue to rely on international technology. Technology is what demarcate between developed and developing countries and the product of the technology emanates from the academia.
“If universities come up with technologies and those technologies are not taken up by the industries, we will have no economic value.
“So, the essence of this board is to see how we synergise and bring in the necessary linkages between the academia and the industry so that what is coming out from the academia is now translated to products and services by the industry.’’
