NOTAP Seeks Partnership with NUC The Director-General, National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP), Dr. Umar Bindir, on Tuesday, 22 July, 2013, led a delegation on a courtesy visit to the Executive Secretary, National Universities Commission (NUC) Professor Julius A. Okojie, OON, to explore partnership on NOTAP-Industry Technology Transfer Fellowship scheme, as a way of linking research output to industry. Dr. Bindir said that NOTAP was working towards ensuring that Nigeria moved from a technology consuming nation to a technology inventing country, by linking indigenous research output to industry and encouraging technology transfer to the country. The Director-General maintained that research linkage would be achieved through the NOTAP Industry Technology Transfer Fellowship, an initiative aimed at enabling the country to produce highly competitive manpower to drive the economy. He explained that, unlike other Fellowships, NOTAP’s Fellowship was not soliciting funds, but rather canvassing for the training of critical manpower, up to the PhD level, in Nigeria, with an industrial attachment experience, to expose the researchers to the needs of the industry and the academia. Dr. Bindir said that to achieve this, there should be synergy among the universities, industry and the markets, noting that the expectation was that the trainees would, not only add value to the companies, but also, contribute to the development of the nation’s economy. He stated that, if properly utilised, Nigeria had abundant human and material resources sufficient to transform the country, adding that academics should be encouraged to partner with industry, in order to acquire relevant skills. He decried the rate of importation of raw materials into the country, describing the situation as unhealthy. He called on relevant stakeholders to encourage the harnessing of the nation’s raw materials and the promotion of made-in-Nigeria products. According to the Director-General, NOTAP was responsible for ensuring that goods brought into the country were brought in fairly, and used fairly, adding that though NOTAP had garnered a lot of experience in its 35 years of existence, not much had been achieved in linking university research output to the industry. This, he said, was due to the wide gap between the researchers and the market. He observed that in 30 years, no Nigerian university had registered any patent, regretting that even raw materials were imported. He revealed that Nestlé, Dangote and Nigerian Breweries Plc were offering scholarships to deserving Nigerians on the basis of the NOTAP Industry Technology Transfer Fellowship to produce manpower that understood the needs of the industry, adding that NOTAP was one of the few agencies that understood the industry clearly due to its mandates. Dr. Bindir explained that the fellowship was aimed at training academics who were linked to universities and the industry, saying that all Nigerian universities would be considered based on their areas of competitive advantage. He said the office was partnering with the Federal Ministry of Education and other relevant agencies to deliver on its mandate. He urged other companies to focus more on the training of critical manpower that would not only add value to their firms, but also guarantee the nations development. Responding, Professor Okojie expressed satisfaction at the visit and described it as a step in the right direction, reiterating that one of the major challenges of the nation was the missing link between government, university and industry. He explained that whereas the relationship between government and the university was strong, the link between the university and industry was weak, a reason for which most research output ended up on the shelf. The Executive Secretary expressed regret that the university had lost ground to the military, in the area of responding to emergencies due to poor work ethics. He also recalled that, whereas the ballistic missile was a product of university research, e-mail was a product of the military. He, therefore, called on universities to focus more on research that would meet the needs of industry and the market. He said universities were supposed to be responsive to challenges through problem-solving research and wondered why universities had not been able to justify the research component of their tripartite functions. He decried the unnecessary distraction in the education system caused by frequent industrial actions by university-based unions. Professor Okojie said that government was committed to promoting research, through the provision of N3billion research fund under the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), but regretted the inability of universities to utilise the funds. He advocated for sanctions against anyone or group who failed to utilise government appropriations for what they were intended. He also called for the inflow and outflow of academics to industry, to enable them to identify their needs. The Executive Secretary said government had been responsive by creating relevant agencies that would assist its institutions, especially the universities, and called for more interaction and partnership amongst agencies to enable them to deliver on their mandates. He said NOTAP was relevant to the education system, hence the need for more collaboration and challenged academics to make use of TETFund interventions to proffer solutions to the nation’s challenges. The NOTAP officials at the meeting were Dr. D.M. Ibrahim, Dr. Ephraim Okejiri and Mr. Jubril Useni. Others were Deputy Director, Technology Acquisition and Transfer, Abu Tandama; Mr. Emeka Orji and Mr. Raymond Ogbu. In the NUC team were Deputy Executive Secretary, Mr. Akinbode Agbaoye and some Management Staff.
Posted on: Wed, 31 Jul 2013 20:25:49 +0000
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