FG considers science lab for Anambra students, industrialists

The National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP) is to establish a science laboratory in Anambra State to encourage students and boost industrial production.

The Director-General, Dr. DanAzumi Ibrahim, made the disclosure during presentation of technology storyboard materials to nine secondary schools in Awka yesterday.

He described science and technology as the bedrock of national development, noting that the beneficiaries, as leaders of tomorrow, needed a solid foundation to drive the process.

Ibrahim said: “NOTAP has plans to establish a science laboratory in the state to make students have a practical approach to science and technology.

“If you continue to consume other nations’ products, you become dependent,” adding that knowledge application transforms raw materials into a finished product.

He expressed the hope that Nigeria would reap economic prosperity if young minds were technologically empowered.

In her speech, Chairman, Senate Committee on Science and Technology, Senator Uche Ekwunife, lauded the initiative, pledging that the “interest of our children in science and technology from primary to secondary school levels would be reawakened.”

She added: “This will enable the young ones to understand the process from farm to the factory, and to the finished products practically demonstrated.

“Children will identify the potential value chain in the overall process and our productive engagements for better career choices.”

Represented by a former Commissioner for Commerce in the state, Ken Arinze, she added that “blending our indigenous technology with the foreign ones would help the country excel and reduce the cost of production.”

A staff of Obosi Girls Secondary School, one of the benefitting institutions, Amuche Okoye, relished the opportunity, commending NOTAP for the gesture.

“We now know that seasoning and noodles are processed from agriculture produce. I will circulate the information that they are not harmful to the public,” she said.

Three schools were each picked from the state’s three senatorial districts.

The lucky institutions included Community Secondary School Akpo, Community High School Ogboji, Abot Special Secondary School (Anambra South); Obosi Girls Secondary School, Federal Science Technical College Awka and Special Science School, Abagana (Anambra Central).

Others were New Era Secondary School Nteje, St. Charles Secondary School, Onitsha, and Ideke Girls Secondary School, Odekpe (Anambra North).