By Dele Ogbodo
The Director General of the National Centre for Technology Management (NACETEM), an agency of the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology, Prof. Okechukwu Ukwuoma,
on Tuesday said the availability of data bank to audit the country’s technology in each sector will make it technology competitive for transformative development.
He averred that China is becoming increasingly relevant in the world because of its robust technology audit which it established about forty years.
Addressing Journalists and Science Technology and Innovation (STI) stakeholders from selected economic sector, in Abuja, the DG, said it is the realization of the need to develop indicators as a basis for national planning, monitoring STI performance led to the conceptualization of STI Indicators project which it started in 2005.
According to him, the overall goal of the harmonization workshop is to develop indicators that will be used to advise federal government, ministry and policy makers on STI.
Prof. Ukwuoma, said the success of the last round of surveys couldn’t have been possible without the support of the NBS, NUC and MAN, adding: We have enjoined support from international agencies such as AOSTI, AU-NEPAD and UNESCO Institute of Statistics.
He said: “Auditing has not been done in Nigeria that helps us to know where we are. If Nigeria wants to go to anywhere technologically do we have the requisite expertise, instrument, infrastructure to be able to go where we want to go technologically?
“Nigeria continues to talk about technological development in Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP), yet we don’t have technology road map of the ministry, but where are we at present that is technologically, expertise, infrastructure and the technology itself where are we.”
In his remarks, the Director of Research and Planning, Mr. Suleiman Ibrahim, said the import of technology audit and data bank will able the country monitor and benchmark its performance against development targets and performance, adding that the objective of forecasting scientific performance is closely aligned to that of technology audit of selected sectors of the economy.
He said: “Adding technology audit as part of this workshop shows the seriousness attached to deployment of science, technology and innovation to sustainable development.
“The audit will reveal the state of development, acquisition and utilization of technology across the country.
“The objective of the project is to identify the technologies relevant for the country’s sustainable development, examine the barriers to utilize and develop the framework and action plan for exploiting technologies for Nigeria’s development.”
He commended NACETEM for demonstrating its understanding of what the ministry has been advocating for, which is using STI as drivers of the nation’s development.