Dr. DanAzumi Mohammed Ibrahim, director general of the National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP) has lamented the poor funding of tertiary Institutions in Nigeria.
The Director General who was presenting a paper titled, ‘Developing More Vibrant Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) Regime Through Deepening The IP Culture In Nigeria’ at the 2018 National Higher Education Forum held in NICON Luxury Hotel Abuja, said for Nigeria’s Tertiary Institutions to be globally competitive and carry out high level research, they need to be adequately funded.
Dr. Ibrahim who pointed out that one of the reasons tertiary institutions are unable to access funds for research work is their inability to write bankable research proposals, which informed NOTAPs holding of several International workshops on Writing Bankable Research Proposals, Attracting Research Funds and Managing Research Projects in collaboration with the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO).
He opined that Universities in Nigeria produce the highest number of academic papers in Africa but failed to translate this huge knowledge into products and services attributing it to a very weak intellectual property culture.
The DG said in order to mitigate this anomaly, NOTAP initiated the Intellectual Property Technology Transfer Offices (IPTTOs) in 2006 with the support of the World Intellectual Property (WIPO). The offices he stated were meant to help researchers have access to patent documents worldwide, avoid re-inventing the wheel and protect their Intellectual Property (IP).
“We have about 40 IPTTOs and the intervention by NOTAP has started yielding results because in 2016 we had about 16 patents but in 2017 it rose to 50 and many Universities are now making requests for the establishment of the IPTTOs in their institutions” he revealed.
He opined that the challenges to intellectual property development in Nigeria is the mindset of publish and perish in the academia, weak IP culture, absence of IP policy in most Nigerian academic institutions and low commercial content in 98 percent of R&D results from the National Systems of Innovation (NSIs) and absence of a central R&D funding mechanism in Nigeria to translate inventions/innovations into products and services amongst others.
Dr. Ibrahim advocated for an intensive and continuous awareness creation of IP and its benefits, establishment of national and institutional intellectual property policy in NSIs, the strengthening the strategic relationship between academics and industry with Government as the head coach, an efficient and effective functioning of the National Research and Innovation Fund(NRIF), the encouragement of industry to participate in domestic R&D and deployment of its product in Nigeria as a way of developing intellectual property.
He asserted that intellectual capital is an intangible asset which is now largely recognized as the most important factor in wealth creation and competitiveness and that technology and IP systems are long recognized to be amongst the foremost important factors to nation building stressing that ideas and knowledge are important factors in international trade relations as codified by the World Trade Organization (WTO) and Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS).
The DG concluded by revealing that friendly IP ecosystems attract Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) and exacerbate national and regional economies, are critical for emerging 4th Industrial revolution and that IPs are goldmine in national tertiary institutions waiting for exploitation.
One of the panelists at the forum, Dr. Timothy Okey Umahi of the Intellectual Property Research Group, University of Nigeria Nsukka commended NOTAP for its proactive approach towards promoting intellectual property development in Nigeria and prompt service delivery. He said Industrial property will move Nigeria forward as no nation will grow without a strong IP culture.
The National Higher education forum is a private sector- driven platform designed to contribute in shaping Nigeria’s higher education policy direction, national innovation ecosystem and overall economic prosperity of Nigeria and is an annual gathering of education and innovation thought leaders in Africa.