By Eunice Orike
Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology, Uche Geoffrey Nnaji has expressed regrets that the long list of research and innovative works on the shelves have increased the number of research results that have ended in the famous ‘valley of death.’
Speaking at a workshop organised by NOTAP in Abuja, on Research Output Commercialization, Panacea for Nigeria’s Technological and Industrial Development, Nnaji said despite the impressive scorecard above on the quantum of research results from the Nigerian knowledge system, the sad reality is that most of these results have ended up in cabin “shelves”.
According to him, these results continuously gather dust and wait for more of such results to be published and join the long list.
Therefore, he said we must collectively confront this challenge and tackle it head-on, Incidentally, no country that has ever developed and maximized its research potentials dare stop at the stage of generating research results only. Instead, they would ensure that the cycle is completed by strategically pushing for the actual commercialization of their viable research results.
“Ensuring that research outputs are commercialized effectively guarantees the emergence and availability of new products and services in the market.
“This availability in the market further affirms that society can optimally benefit from them, ensuring that STI proactively address societal challenges and needs. These developed economies rely on the depth and strength of their.
“STI programmes and activities to remain relevant and sustain their high positions in the global development and innovation rankings.”
Due to the immense challenges in achieving a successful commercialization cycle, this workshop becomes extremely important for all stakeholders within the research commercialization value chain and its ecosystem, adding that this underscores the importance of this workshop is the multiple societal needs confronting our country, making it more evident that the mono-economic structure of her operations is unsustainable.
According to the Minister, NOTAP has long been at the forefront of driving national initiatives to regulate foreign technology inflow, developing technology acquisition, adaptation, domestication of strategies and promoting indigenous technological activities.
This workshop, he said was a testament to NOTAP’s commitment to sustaining the national drive for research commercialization and national development anchored on a robust Science, Technology, and Innovation (STI) platform
Nnaji, acknowledged that it is well-known that the Nigerian STI landscape is quantitatively rich with several documented research activities and results, adding that Nigeria has many knowledge institutions, including 272 universities, 108 polytechnics, 235 Colleges of Education, several research institutes and unquantifiable numbers of private researchers, innovators and inventors.
The vast resource base according to him, is known for regularly producing so many research results, adding that the continent’s publishing landscape showed that Nigeria is only second to South Africa in the number of research papers published in peer-reviewed journals.
However, Nnaji said that the present situation of the economy has also reaffirmed the already known fact that Nigeria needs her research community to put on thinking caps, rise to the occasion and provide the citizenry with products and services that drive the desired diversified economy of our dream.
He used the opportunity to charge every researcher and indeed all the stakeholders at the workshop and in the research commercialization value chain to see the present societal needs as a call to action by taking every necessary step required to ensure that the research results from the vast knowledge base of the country are effectively commercialized, with the attendant benefits manifesting in the national economy.
“On our part, the Ministry will continue to provide the necessary support to NOTAP to ensure the achievement of this noble drive to facilitate the commercialization of research results.
“The government is not unaware of the enormous financial demands needed to foster a functional research commercialization culture in the system and would explore all legitimate opportunities to ensure increased funding of this significant component of the country’s scientific endeavours.
“The success of the just concluded 2024 Techno Expo is a testament to my Ministry’s resolve to drive the aggressive commercialization of research results.
“We are committed to this drive and will continue to engage with all stakeholders in the STI ecosystem and value chain to ensure that Nigeria and its citizens benefit from the monumental potential inherent in STI.” he said.
According to him, the 2022 revised STl policy document that strongly emphasized innovation and other critical programmes, such as the Presidential Standing Committee on Invention and Innovation (PSCl), among many others, are strategies of the Ministry in advancing research commercialization within the system.
In her welcome address, the Permanent Secretary, Mrs. Esuabana Asanye, expressed optimism that the brainstorming session will move the country forward through a new paradigm on commercialization of research and development outputs.
According to her, the workshop is also aimed at expeditiously sustaining the exploitation and exploration of our research development innovation potential through a national vibrant academy and research community, adding that the success of the exposition is expected to facilitate the technological and industrial growth of the nation.
However, she added that our country is experiencing dwindling revenue because of the crash in prices of the oil and gas sector, adding: “We are here today to think of how to make STI another area to build our national revenue.
