By Felix Khanoba
Minister of Education, Dr. Maruf Tunji Alausa, has charged Nigerian universities and the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI) to move beyond academic research and transform innovations from laboratories into businesses, jobs and marketable products capable of powering Nigeria’s ambition of building a $1 trillion economy.
Alausa gave the charge while addressing Vice-Chancellors, Directors of Academic Affairs, Directors of Postgraduate Studies and officials of the Federal Ministry of Education’s Directorate of University Education on opportunities for universities to partner with NASENI through the agency’s Campus initiative.
Alausa said the proposed collaboration would provide a platform for researchers to access advanced laboratories, prototyping facilities, industries and investment opportunities, thereby creating a clear pathway for innovative ideas to move from universities into the marketplace.
According to a statement issued on Tuesday by his Special Adviser on Media and Communications, Ikharo Attah, the minister stressed that Nigeria could not afford to allow valuable research outputs to remain confined to academic publications and prototypes.
He said the country must deliberately build a system that converts research into commercial ventures, drawing lessons from successful innovation ecosystems such as the one around Cambridge, Massachusetts.
The minister said Nigerian researchers should be supported to patent their inventions, develop them into commercially viable products and collaborate with investors to establish companies around their innovations.
To strengthen the research-to-market pipeline, Alausa called on NASENI to establish stronger affiliations with universities located around its development centres.
He noted that universities have a large pool of researchers, lecturers and students whose expertise could complement NASENI’s technological and industrial development efforts.
According to him, NASENI can play a critical role in bridging the gap between academic discoveries and commercial success by helping researchers secure patents, linking innovators with venture capital and facilitating the establishment of university spin-off companies.
The minister also challenged NASENI to explore opportunities in lithium processing and battery manufacturing as Nigeria expands its renewable energy capacity and industrial base.
Speaking earlier, NASENI’s EVC/CEO, Mr. Khalil Suleiman Halilu, outlined the agency’s efforts to bridge the gap between research and production in line with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s directive to ensure that innovations move beyond prototypes to actual production.
Halilu explained that the proposed NASENI Campus, situated within a 100-hectare free trade zone, was being developed as an integrated ecosystem where researchers, professors, prototyping facilities, industries and commercialisation opportunities could operate within the same environment.
He added that several factories and industrial facilities had already been established within the zone.
On his part, the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Abuja, Professor Hakeem Babatunde Fawehinmi, said the institution’s existing partnership with NASENI had demonstrated the practical benefits of linking university research with industrial development.
He said the partnership had resulted in the establishment of facilities including an integrated agriculture incubation centre, greenhouse facilities, automated poultry systems and tissue culture laboratories supporting undergraduate and postgraduate research.
Fawehinmi added that the university was prepared to expand its collaboration with NASENI into areas including dairy science and renewable energy.
Also highlighting the commercial potential of university research, the Vice-Chancellor of Bayero University, Kano, Professor Haruna Musa, disclosed that the institution was exploring broader collaboration with NASENI in nanotechnology, vaccinology, toxinology and mathematical modelling.
Musa said two research projects from BUK had reached the final stage of NASENI’s research commercialisation grant process.
Among them, he said, were a reusable sanitary pad project and an initiative for the commercial production of sweet potato-based starch derivatives.
Reaffirming the Federal Government’s commitment to creating a functional research-to-commercialisation ecosystem, Alausa said the Ministry would continue to collaborate with NASENI, universities and other stakeholders to connect research and innovation with investment, production and job creation.
He said the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was not merely about increasing the volume of research produced by Nigerian universities, but ensuring that the country’s knowledge, skills and innovations translate into products, businesses, jobs and sustainable prosperity.
