The Minister of State for Science and Technology, Barrister Abdullahi Mohammed, has said that proper implementation of Science, Technology, and Innovation (STI) policies will accelerate Nigeria to be one of the most industrialized nations in the world.
Barrister Mohammed said this, at the opening ceremony of a 3-day Capacity Building Workshop jointly hosted by the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology -United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), in Abuja.
The conference is centred on STI policy-making, Mapping, and Review Methodologies to foster necessary interactions and exchange of knowledge.
The Minister said that the STI sector enjoyed steady progress in the last eight years, due to policy implementation in areas such as solar technology, road research, biotechnology capacity development, and many other crucial areas.
In his speech, he reiterated the need for the country to develop a bank and financial institution, primarily for the purpose of funding Research and Development in STI
In his words, “To mitigate against the challenge of funding, FMST is strongly advocating the establishment of R&D bank to close the gap in the absence of venture capitalist to support the commercialisation of R& D findings.
On policy implementation, he buttressed that, it’s a bridge that allows the objectives of public policies to be achieved and expressed as outcomes of government activities.
He further advocated for certain strategic actions for effective policy implementation, these include; awareness creation, developing monitoring indicators, garnering state-level cooperation, and ensuring stakeholder participation.
Earlier, the Director Dakar Regional office and Organisation of Islamic Corporation (OIC) Abuja Regional Office, Dr. Dimitri Sanga, said that the recent Covid-19 pandemic is a wake-up call for member nations to invest in and build robust STI eco-systems.
The Secretary-General, Nigerian National Commission for UNESCO, Mr. Olagunji Idowu, said the capacity workshop will go a long way to properly reposition STI policies in the country
