FG Restates Commitment to Science, Technology

The federal government has said it would continue to encourage proper use of science and technology in the nation’s institutes of higher learning across the country.

This is with a view to developing the country intellectually and to ensure that Nigeria achieves meaningful economic growth through the use of modern technology as a foundation for human capital development.

Dr. Alhassan Zaku, minister of State for Science and Technology, spoke in Abuja through the director-general, national office for technology acquisition and promotion (Notap).

Dr. Zaku noted that ICT has actually brought about unprecedented improvements in the world’s economic, political and social systems. He added that the revolutionary changes taking place in ICT have led to the development of new goods and services with attendant significant positive impact on our way of life, such as no other technology has done before.

ICT, he continued, offers Nigerians the opportunity to leapfrog into the modern information, describing Nigeria’s position in Africa’s latest ICT indicators as a welcome development worthy of emulation by other African countries still lagging behind in information technology.

It would be recalled that Nigeria has ranked number 40th in Africa’s latest ICT indicators released by the International Telecommunications Union (Itu).

The 2007 ICT indicators sum up the mobile, fixed telephony, Internet, broadband, computers and broadcasting access and penetration on the continent.