Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, Dr Ogbonnaya Onu, said that Nigeria is ready to collaborate with the Republic of Sierra-leone in order to solidify the relationship between both countries in order to develop STIs.
The minister stated this when he received his Sierra-Leonean counterpart Prof. Alpha Tejan Wurie in his office on Thursday, in Abuja.
Onu said that Africa has many young people with tremendous potential, who can be equipped with the necessary skills to enable them to use our enormous natural resources to transform the economy.
In his words “All the continent that have developed always comes to Africa to take our resources to develop themselves. And the question is can’t we use the same resources, which other people take from us to develop our own country”.
He emphasised the need for African countries to come together, and share experiences that can add value to our enormous resources to develop the African continent.
He further stated that Nigeria’s economy is diversified and yet need to deepen its diversification to enable it to grow its domestic products which will help the country’s GDP to rise, this he added will help the country to create jobs, employment, and wealth for our people.
The Minister further stated that the essence of Expo 2022 is to facilitate the commercialization of research findings, and also provide platforms whereby all researchers, inventors, innovators, entrepreneurs meet together with investors to know how to convert research findings into products and services.
Earlier, the Minister of Technical and Higher Education to Sierra-lone, Prof. Alpha Tejan Wurie said the purpose of his visit is to deepen collaboration between both countries in areas of STI and Higher Education.
He further said that his country could learn a lot from Nigeria’s expertise in STI development.
