The Federal Government, on Tuesday, disbursed about N25 million to five Academies as a token of appreciation for their contributions to national development.
They are the Nigerian Academy of Science, the Nigerian Academy of Engineering, the Nigerian Academy of Letters, as well as the Nigerian Academy of Education and the Nigerian Academy of Social Science. Each academy received N5 million.
Minister of Science and Technology, Dr Ogbonnaya Onu, while disbursing the grants to the beneficiaries in Abuja, implored them to work in synergy and apply their knowledge to solve the numerous challenges facing the country.
He noted that challenges like corruption, insecurity and economy could only be surmounted with the application of knowledge-driven technology.
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Dr Onu described the Academies as reservoirs of knowledge which could be of great benefit to the nation in her bid to achieve greatness.
The minister said for Nigeria to overcome its challenges, knowledge and hard work of people must be appreciated to encourage them to do more, and by this, Nigeria will eventually join the comity of developed nations whose contribution to Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) would be respected globally.
While saying that only the best minds, ideas and innovations are good for Nigeria, the minister assured them that as the ministry’s funding improves, more capital would be injected to fund their research activities, urging them to make judicious use of the grant in the best interest of the nation.
Earlier, speaking on behalf of the recipients, the President of the Nigerian Academy of Engineering, Professor Fola Lasisi, expressed his profound appreciation to the ministry for blazing the trail in the search for knowledge-driven technology development in the country and promised on behalf of the other academies to put to good and judicious use the grants awarded to them.