By Zakariyya Adaramola
President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the change of name of Ministry of Science and Technology to Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation to bring about a shift in research and development that is industry and services’ demand-driven.
The Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation Dr Ogbonnaya Onu, who disclosed this at a press conference in Abuja on Friday, said president Buhari had also charged the rebranded ministry with overseeing the Innovation Agenda of the federal government.
“This development will help us bring about a shift in Research and Development (R&D) that is industry and services’ demand-driven, resulting in rapid commercialization and ultimately improved global competitiveness ranking of Nigeria,” Onu said.
The minister said the approval of the change ofd name would be gazetted to enable legal and policy frameworks as backup for institutional and organisational arrangements, effective coordination of the National Science and Innovation in the country.
He noted that there had been missing link with statutory responsibility of the ministry and the change of name would address it.
He said: ” When we succeed in achieving this, it will lead us to R &D breakthroughs and inventions that are commercialisable. With the right policy and legal framework to protect intellectual property right, we can effectively promote commercialization in all activity sectors in the value chain for supply of raw materials, goods and services.”
He said this will result to irreversible indigenous industrialization, adequate platform for higher productivity, improvement in value added components of the economy and job creation.
Consequently, he said, Nigeria will achieve significant level of poverty alleviation.
He added that this would also be a major push to realise the objective of Muhammadu Buhari’s administration of lifting 100million Nigerians out of poverty within 10 years.