THE Federal Government, on Monday, disclosed that henceforth its research efforts would be industry driven and targeted at national needs, so as to enable the country stopped the importation of what it could produce internally.
Minister of Science and Technology, Dr Ogbonnaya Onu, who disclosed this in his office in Abuja, while receiving a delegation of Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) led by its President, Engineer Mansur Ahmed, said his ministry was poised to develop necessary technology to promote innovation and make research by its agencies to be industry-driven.
He explained that the ministry had produced a leather policy that was expected to boost the leather industry and spearhead industrialisation in Nigeria.
Dr Onu also said that the BT cotton variety recently developed by the ministry’s National Biotechnology Development Agency (NBDA) would go a long way in resuscitating the moribund textile industry and rejuvenate our cotton sector.
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The minister announced that through the Natural Strategy for Competitiveness in Raw Materials, the country would save a sum of N2.6 trillion would be saved in the next five years.
Earlier, the President of MAN, Engineer Ahmed said the association wanted a Public Private Partnership (PPP) with the ministry for the purpose of improving and adding value to raw materials so as to boost industrialisation.
According to him, the collaboration will help develop sub-sectors of the economy which have the potentials to end the importation of finished products and create jobs.
He used the opportunity to invite the minister to its forthcoming three-day Expo with the theme: “Optimising the Value-Chain in the Manufacturing Sector to Achieve Growth,” adding that the association would create the platform for mutual engagement of all stakeholders in the manufacturing sector.
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