The Federal Government has inaugurated the National Advisory Committee on Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) indicators to help provide scientific evidence to formulate national development strategies
The overseeing director-general of the National Centre for Technology Management (NACETEM), Dr. John Omimakinde stated this at the inauguration of the committee in Abuja
STI indicators have been deployed to good effect by the developed nations in economic planning, policy formulation and development strategies.
In his address, Omimakinde stressed that the council is an advisory one established to provide access on databanks to facilitate commercial exploitation.
“In most African countries, most policies on STI are not based on scientific facts either because they are unavailable or, where they exist, [are] unreliable.
“It is this lacuna that prompted the conceptualisation of the STI indicators’ project in 2005 by NACETEM, which became continental following its integration with the AU-NEPAD African Science, Technology and Innovation Indicators (ASTII) initiative in 2007. This is in furtherance to NACETEM’s mandate of establishing, maintaining and providing access to databanks on STI research outputs and facilitating activities towards their commercial exploitation,” he said.
He recalled that, in 2007, the Federal Government mandated NACETEM to serve as the implementation agency.
The NACETEM boss further assured that these indicators will ultimately facilitate evidence-based policy-making and assist government to do away with guess work in governance.
Omimakinde disclosed that the objectives of the STI Indicators project would be “to monitor, evaluate and forecast Nigeria’s performance in STI, to benchmark against national developmental targets and to assess Nigeria’s international competitiveness in STI and further lend credence to its strategic importance in achieving sustainable development in Nigeria”.
He assured that the agency will continue to deliver on its mandate of establishing, maintaining and providing access to databank on STI outputs with the needed support.
