THE National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP) has promised to create at least one million jobs in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector of the Nigerian economy.
NOTAP also promised to facilitate the development of seven fully made-in-Nigeria products that will have international exposure within the next nine years.
The Director General, NOTAP, Dr Umar Bindir while briefing newsmen in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, regretted that 50 years after independence, Nigeria is yet to develop a particular product or company that has a recognized brand name all over the world.
“It is high time we stopped creating jobs for other countries and empowering their citizens by importing almost everything while Nigerians are suffering at home with poverty and unemployment.
“NOTAP observed when we celebrated our 50th anniversary, in our own constituency when you look at the 50 years that we are celebrating, Nigeria has failed to celebrate one single product that is globally known as the benefit of Nigerian technology; Nigeria has failed to come out with one single company that is globally respected for producing products from its own internal technology”, said Bindir.
He said the 7 products will cover Information and Communications Technology (ICT), bioresources, sports equipment, and agriculture.
He also decried the attitude of many researchers in the country as, he said, most of their research outcomes stopped at the prototype level, saying that according to a survey carried out by his agency, in NOTAP alone there are over 1,500 of such prototypes that didn’t materialise into commercial products.
With the recent formation of the National System of Innovation Drive (NSID) by his agency and other job creation agencies such as the National Poverty Eradication Programme (NAPEP) and National Directorate of Employment (NDE), at least one million jobs will be created in the next two years, he said.
Bindir also used the occassion to announce the establish of a NOTAP Industry Research Funds.
The fund will award scholarships for Ph.Ds to first class science and engineering graduates.
SIMEON OGOEGBULEM in Abuja, Nigeria
