NOTAP DG seeks industry, academia partnership on research, technology

THE director-general of the National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion, Dr Danazumi Ibrahim, has called for a strong partnership between the academia and industrialists to promote research and technology.

He spoke in Abuja at the inaugural meeting of the Igbinedion University industry-academia board meeting, where he lamented that the country could not grow with over 90 per cent of its technology being imported.

Ibrahim who is also the chairman of the board said there was a need for the partnership in order to generate local technologies capable of translating into products and services for national development.

He insisted that unless the academia and the industry come together, the research and development efforts of the country would not lead to economic development.

He said: “Our quest to develop economically cannot be unconnected with the need to establish a very strong bond between the academia and the industry.

“Nigeria is a country that is developing but more than 90 per cent of the technologies are imported. There is no way a country will develop by continuing in other people’s technology.

“We have to generate our own technology; we need to begin to develop local technologies. We have competencies in the universities, polytechnics and research establishments.

“We cannot continue to rely on international technology. Technology is what demarcates 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.”

The NOTAP boss commended the university’s foresight as it is desirous of establishing linkages that have the potential of growing and earning resources outside its budget; but he called for more funding into the country’s educational sector in order for research to take the lead in reshaping the focus of the country.

Ibrahim urged universities to always develop their competencies to reach out to the industries while also protecting their intellectual assets.

Meanwhile, Professor Charity Emaviwe, a professor of Law, Igbinedion University Okada, emphasised the need for universities, industries and government to meet to foster economic and national development through researches.

Emaviwe, who is also a member of the board, said the university was working towards strengthening the established Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with industries to promote development in the country.

“The food that is being cooked in the Universities is research, but who is going to eat the food? The people that will eat the food are in the industries because they are the end users.

“So it is important for the universities to know the type of food that can be cooked in the industry. So, what we do is to go to the industries and find out what are their challenges and then come back to the universities for solutions,” he said.

Also, Dr Queeneth Omoyibo, a lecturer in the Mechanical Engineering Department of the university, said that acceptability of academia by the industry had been a major challenge which must be addressed.

Omoyibo said that NOTAP involvement would open a new vista between the academia and industrialists for the technological development in the country.