National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP) has lamented on the poor funding of research and development in Nigeria.
Dr Dan-Azumi Ibrahim, director-general of NOTAP, who decried the amount spent by Nigerian organisations to import relevant technologies into Nigeria, blamed it on poor funding for researchers.
Ibrahim, while speaking in Abuja said about 95 percent of technology being utilised in all sectors of the country’s economy were imported.
“The quantum of money that goes out of Nigeria as licencing fee (for technology transfers) is too high and should be of concern to all patriotic Nigerians,” he said.
According to him, the lack of fund for researchers has made it difficult to generate technology locally.
He stressed that as “long as we continue to use our scarce foreign reserves to import goods and services, we can’t develop as a nation.”
The NOTAP boss said the if Nigerians patronised made-in-Nigeria products and services, in line with the Federal Government’s local content policy, the situation could change.
Ibrahim acknowledged the fact that Nigerian researchers were making efforts to generate technological innovations despite poor funding of research and development.
“If you look at the number of publications in both national and international journals, we are among the highest in Africa, but this does not translate to economic development,” he noted.
