.Stresses need to commercialise research results

Director-General, National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP), Dr. DanAzumi Ibrahim, has stressed the need for commercialisation of innovative research results for the benefit of the larger society.

While lamenting that research conducted at institutions in Nigeria only gather dust on shelves, he said the relationship between the private sector and academia in the country had not been bringing economic growth to the country.

Ibrahim stated this, yesterday, at the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signing on NOTAP Industry Research Laboratory Upgrade Project (NIRLUP) for upgrade of laboratories in five universities, in Abuja.

The project, to be funded by PZ Cussons Nigeria, has University of Jos (UNIJOS), Plateau State; Usman Dan Fodio University, Sokoto (UDUSOK), Sokoto State; University of Port Harcourt (UNIPORT), Rivers State; Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike (MOUAU), Abia State; and Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA), Ondo State as beneficiaries.

The NOTAP DG stated: “All of us know what transpires in the advanced world. There is a very strong synergy between the private sector and academia. In our own country and before the start of this programme, I am afraid to say, there was little intervention from the private sector to the university.”

What we believe is that nations are moving from resource-based to knowledge-based economy, and we have competences and resources in the universities.

“But we do not translate the knowledge into products and services. We have yet to see the economic impact of our intervention in the economic development of our country. So, the universities are looking at one side, the private sectors are also looking at another side.”

Ibrahim observed that NOTAP, being a regulator for transfer of technology from outside the country into Nigeria, had advised universities to focus on Research and Development (R&D) to reduce the nation’s dependence on imported technologies.

According to him, though universities are doing their best by undertaking research, most of the results are still on the shelf, adding: “As long as they do not translate into product and services, they have little or no value to the system.

“So, as regulators, we try to synergise a point of relationship between the private sector and academia. That, we believe, will eventually see our R&D efforts translating into products and services.”