By Godfrey AKON
The Minister of Education, Dr. Olatunji Alausa, has said the government is strategizing on drawing attention to the dire needs and opportunities presented by the current administration in making research and innovation the major driver of Nigeria’s economy and industrialisation.
Speaking at the first National Research Fair and Exhibition, organized by the Tertiary Education Trust Fund, TETFund, in Abuja, Alausa said the core strategy of the ministry and other relevant institutions in organizing the fair was to draw attention to research and innovation.
The minister said the fair aligned with President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda on domesticating the local research results for the objective of creating jobs, generating wealth, and ultimately, strengthening the economy.
He described the fair as a clarion call to all tertiary institutions and research institutes in Nigeria to align with the reforms of the President to conduct their teaching, research and innovations, to be applied, practical and effective in addressing the development challenges in our country.
“Generally, Research and Innovation System helps to categorize countries into the First, Second and Third World countries. In other words, Research and Innovation system is the cardinal factor in determining the quality of life of a people and the overall status of their nation. Hence, research and innovation application determines the leaders and followers of this world,” he said.
He said research and innovation are “the indispensable vehicles for transforming our society: from backwardness to modernity; from being a liability to becoming as asset; from being a market/consumer nation to an industrialized/producer nation; from a dependent economy to a self-reliant one; and from an import-oriented economy to an export-oriented one.”
According to him countries are categorized as first, second or third world based on their research and innovation output, add that the success of Nigeria’s vision and development agenda largely depends on if the country will also learn from the experiences Europe, America and Asia, who adopted research and innovation in driving development in those continents.
Alausa called on all financial institutions including commercial banks to also reform their support to government and strategically support Nigerians to establish small and medium enterprises, using home-grown technologies.
He also urged International Development Partners to also reform their support to align it to Mr. President’s Renewed Hope Agenda to ensure that the youth of Nigeria acquire the necessary and relevant capacities and organisational skills to succeed as producers and service providers for National Development.
Also speaking, the Chairman Board of Trustees of TETFund, Hon. Aminu Bello Masari, disclosed that uptakers were invited to the fair to critically look at products on display for possible adoption and mainstreaming into the Nigerian market.
Masari said financial institutions were also invited to participate and possibly fund the commercialization of viable products.
According to him, the fair is also saddled with the responsibility of protecting the intellectual property and trade secrets of inventors and rights of all the participants.
He said huge resources have been committed by TETFund into research and development, adding that the fund has sponsored 23,221 Institution Based Research and 912 National Research Fund grants since 2011.
He also expressed TETFund’s readiness to contribute its quota to national development by funding public tertiary education, and especially quality research that can impact positively on the wellbeing of Nigerians.
Masari solicited for further cooperation from all relevant stakeholders in order for TETFund to continue to impact Nigeria’s educational landscape, as a world-class intervention agency.
On his part, the Executive Secretary of TETFund, Arc Sonny Echono, stressed the importance of research and innovation in the sustenance of any society.
Echono noted that beside expanding knowledge and facilitating changes in the society, research should be able to address societal problems and ultimately bring about improvements in the standard of living.
He said the fund has also up scaled its efforts at supporting other critical research and development initiatives aimed at facilitating the uptake of various various research output for the benefit of society.
“These initiatives include the Research for Impact (R4i) Programme, the TETFund Alliance for Innovative Research (TETFAIR) and the Innovation Fellowship for Aspiring Inventors and Researchers (i-FAIR) programme,” he said.
The TETFund boss added that the ultimate objective is to translate research from Nigerian Tertiary Institutions to innovations, inventions and solutions for practical application and commercialization.
According to him, “Based on its support over the years, TETFund has noted the immense improvement in the performance of Universities, Polytechnics and Colleges of Education in Nigeria, most especially in the area of Research and Development.
“The research outputs under the Natural Sciences, Technology & Innovation, the Social Sciences and Arts, from these institutions are increasingly being recognized and respected all over the world, leading to an extraordinary increase in the numbers of Professors, PhD graduates and the general quality of teaching and further research.
“In view of the policies of Government aimed at revamping the economy, creating jobs, generating wealth and redistributing wealth among Nigerians, TETFund further recognized the imperative need to enhance the linkages of these impressive academia performances to industry and the day-to-day life on the average Nigerian,” he said.
Echono disclosed that to ensure effective implementation of the Fair, TETFund specially established a Research Fair Sub-Committee in July 2024, to serve as the Local Organizing Committee, LOC, of the National Research Fair.
He said the committee was mandated to, among other things, urgently take stock of all research output technologies from universities, polytechnics, colleges of education, research institutes and others, and document them.
