Minister of Science and Technology, Dr Ogbonnaya Onu, has urged Nigerians to tap into N100 billion traditional medicine market through exploitation of abundant herbal resources in the country.
He gave this advice when the National Steering Committee on 1st Summit on Plant Resources for Sustainable National Development led by its chairman, Professor Maurice Iwu, paid a courtesy call on him in Abuja.
He decried the situation where some Nigerians chose to patronise herbs from other countries when they had them in abundance in the country.
The minister urged the committee to encourage Nigerians to protect their intellectual property on whatever findings they had made, noting that the National Strategy on Competitiveness would make Nigeria natural resources to become more competitive.
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Earlier, the chairman of the Committee, Professor Iwu, said that the committee had carried out asset mapping to determine herbal resources in the country, stressing that each state had something to contribute to the programme.
He stated that the first bi-annual summit which was scheduled to hold in September, 2018, was expected to provide the platform to learn from one another, translate what had been learnt in school to products for the improvement of the nation’s economy.
“It will also provide the opportunity for exhibition of materials that are of plant resources and for universities to showcase their products,” he added.
Meanwhile, the minister of Science and Technology, Dr Ogbonnaya Onu, has called for effective deployment of Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) for cultural transformation and promotion of national security in the country.
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