By Paul Williams
The Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, Dr. Olorunnimbe Mamara has called for the total banning of all foreign goods that Nigeria can produce locally to protect local inventions in the country.
Briefing State House Correspondents at the Ministerial Media Briefing organized by the Presidential Communications on Tuesday at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, Mamora regretted that most of the inventions by agencies under the ministry are gathering dust on shelves because of a lack of investors and poor market.
According to him, the Ministry of Science, Technology, and Innovation is having a challenge taking research outputs to the market, saying that it is only when that is done that it would be seen as doing something.
He said while the ministry would continue to engage the relevant stakeholders, it also thought of legislation to compel the protection of the inventions before pushing them to the market.
Asked what was being done with all the several inventions by the ministry, Mamora said: “It’s a question that we have also been pondering about. It will interest you that virtually all our agencies have come up with one invention or the other.
“But the challenge had always been taking these research outputs to the market. Because until and unless we can take them to the market, we would not be seen to have been able to do something.”
While noting that the ministry’s gradual steps may be slow, he added: “We need to do more in terms of having that handshake between the research institutions and the market through investors and those who are interested – people that move around with their capital and would want to invest.
“So it’s a challenge that we know we are still facing which we need to do more about it. There are so many outputs that are still gathering dust on the shelves of various agencies.
“What we are doing is to continue to engage, to continue to have fora for this engagement where we can bring all stakeholders together.”
The minister further harped on the need for people to be aware of the inventions and desire them, “We are also looking at how we can compel, as it were, a little bit of legislation that once these things are available particularly if they are protected because we also need to protect the intellectual property, we can just push them to the markets.
“So, the challenge is about getting investors that will take these inventions out there and these things can then be useful to our people.
“Again, we also have a duty in terms of our nationalism.
“One of the challenges again is that we have developed a taste that is not local. Rather, taste that is alien. We have this tendency to want to get something from abroad.
“Again, I think the government will need to come hard in terms of a total banning, as it were, of things that we can do locally. That is why nationalism comes in.
“So we are pushing it, we appreciate that. But we are not holding our arms because it’s not the best for us in this circumstance to just have inventions that are gathering dust on the shelves. So we are trying to do our best.”