The director-general of the Federal Institute for Industrial Research Oshodi (FIIRO) Lagos, Mrs. Jummai Adamu has called for more investment to harness the technological potential of the country for industrial development.
Speaking during a side event ‘FIRRO Day’ at the ongoing seventh edition of the Science Technology and Innovation (STI) Expo themed “Actualising Effective Diversification of the Nigerian Economy through Science, Technology and Innovation” in Abuja, Adamu posited that technology gaps are hindering Nigeria’s industrial development.
She said Nigeria must stop her over-dependence on oil and gas, stressing that the country can achieve that through STI to transform the country from consumption-based to one based on production.
“Our mono-economic dependence on oil and gas, which is non-renewable, has kept us from meaningful development. This is attributed to our inability to properly utilise STI as the fulcrum for modern development.
“All developed and developing countries all over the world are where they are today because they realised that it is only through science, technology and innovation, that all our problems can be tackled,” she said.
She added that science, technology and innovation holds the key to the present and future development of any nation. It plays a fundamental role in wealth creation, improvement of quality of life and real economic growth and transformation in any society.
“STI sector will enable us to come out strong and tackle our technological challenges with ease, thereby arresting the menace of poverty, youth restiveness, terrorism, kidnapping and banditry currently ravaging the country,” she noted.
Adamu, however, commended the current government’s drive for economic diversification, adding that one of the key components that aid economic diversification is technology transfer, which has to do with the innovative capabilities of any organisation that wants to thrive technologically.
She pointed out that increase in economic diversification will expose Nigeria to opportunities to utilise its technological prowess and become more capable to generate new technological solutions stemming from the cross-fertilisation of ideas among different knowledge areas of diversification, thus producing positive effects on the nation’s innovation performance.
