NOTAP to bridge gaps in ICT development

THE National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP) has formerly launched the NOTAP-Industry Technology Transfer Fellowship (NITTF) initiative.
   
The initiative, according to NOTAP is expected to bridge gaps in the process of acquiring and adapting imported technologies into the country.
 
At the launch in Abuja, the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Science and Technology, Mrs. Winifred Oyo-Ita, said over the 35 year existence of NOTAP, the agency through its monitoring exercise of the implementation of technology transfer agreements, has observed that there are many inadequacies and disconnect between industries and the National Innovation System, which resulted in the absence of value creation and inability to acquire and adapt imported technologies beneficial to the national economy.
   
As such, Oyo-Ita said in order to address the weaknesses and huge gaps in the process of acquiring and adapting imported technologies into Nigeria, NOTAP came up with the NOTAP-Industry Partnership Initiative with a number of schemes in 2009 including the NITTF, which is aimed at providing an efficient process for the acquisition and domestication of foreign technologies as enshrined in section 4(c) of the NOTAP Act.
   
She commended NOTAP for the brilliant initiative and expressed appreciation to the companies that have fulfilled their pledges to sponsor the fellowships and appealed to those who have not to key into the scheme.
 
The Permanent Secretary promised the full support of the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology towards the implementation of the scheme.
 
Presenting the concept and content of the NITTF scheme, immediate past Director-General of NOTAP and current Secretary to Adamawa State Government, Umar BubaBindir, said the scheme was borne out of the dire need to bridge the wide gap that exists between research and industry.
   
He said that the scheme is a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) platform designed to create indigenous critical technological competencies of elite applied knowledge workers in Nigeria through special PhD programmes tenable in