Nigeria, Israel Cooperate On Technology Transfer, Rapid Industrialisation
Scientific advances and technological change are important drivers of a nation's economic performance. The ability to create, distribute and exploit knowledge has become a major source of competitive advantage, wealth creation and improvements in the quality of life.
Some of the main features of this transformation are the growing impact of science and technology on the economy and on society; the rapid application of recent scientific advances in new products and processes; a high rate of innovation across countries; a shift to more knowledge-intensive industries and services; and rising skill requirements.
These changes imply that science, technology and innovation are now key to improving economic performance and social well-being.
In the case of Nigeria's scientific development, researchers and inventors have come up with various inventions which, regrettably, do not meet international standards to positively affect the nation's economy.
With the nation's current economic recession and the Federal Government's determination to diversify the economy, the nation is currently looking for strategic partnership to grow various sectors of the economy.
Speaking recently when he received the deputy chief of mission, Embassy of Israel in Nigeria, Nadan Goren, in his office in Abuja, the Minister of Science and Technology, Dr Ogbonnaya Onu, stressed the need for strategic partnership with other developed nations to strengthen Nigeria's economy.
He re-echoed the federal government's determination to strengthen trade and bilateral relations with the Israeli government through science and technology innovations (STI) to drive food security, improve health care and rapid industrialisation.
He said the Nigerian government would partner Israeli government in the area of science and technology to improve food security, make sure we have high yielding resistant seedlings, pest control and mechanization.
"If we don't mechanise the process of faming we can never get young people to farm because I cannot see any young person who will go and use the machete that our great grandfathers used.
"We are more interested in producing food to make sure that Nigerians are not hungry, to make sure we are producing enough power to light our factory and our homes and we make sure that we power the industrialization drive of the nation for alternative source of energy" the minister stated.
He restated the ministry's determination to make sure that we move our economy from resource- based to knowledge-based and effectively utilise all the resources available in the country.
He said the ministry was working hard to help create jobs through research and innovations that would help our country to grow its Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
He said: "As part of the activities put in place to drive the commercialisation process, the ministry is planning science, technology and innovation expo, which we believe will be a multiple exposition in the country that will involve not just the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology, but all research institutes in the country, all universities, all research laboratories in our various industries and those who are in the informal sector. We want to make sure we pull all the resources together then we will invite the entrepreneurs, we will invite the investors to help us in the search for commercialization of our research findings."
The Israeli envoy, Goren said Israel was ready to share its knowledge on technology and innovation with a country like Nigeria.
"Israel is good example of a country in which natural resources, two thirds of their land is arid and officially desert and the only way we overcame these challenges was using technology, innovation and I think a country that has this experience can share this experience, can share this knowledge on technology, innovation with a country like Nigeria.
"I believe the progress on the future we are talking about is on innovation and technology and also looking into education and the people, the human resources as the most important resources.
"We are committed to promoting bilateral trade, we are looking forward to transfer knowledge and technology, once Nigeria has the technology and the know-how all the technology will be here. We really hope that you take this opportunity and have your industry here, technology here, so that you may very soon export as much as we import from Nigeria," the ambassador stated.
