Prof. Jefferey Barminas, Director General of the National Research Institute for Chemical Technology (NACRIT), said NACRIT urgently needs an establishment Act due to its strategic importance to national development.
Barminas said this at the 2023 STI Expo in Abuja on Wednesday.
He disclosed that the diversified perspectives of Nigeria’s chemical technology can be harnessed to address peculiar needs of the nation.
He said it can also fast track industrialised outfits, create massive employments, improve the nation’s GDP and earn sizable forex.
The D-G enjoined that national interests should effusively embrce current global practices in chemical technology development.
He assured that if this is done, Nigeria in no distant time, would move from the dungeon of a consumer nation to a proud producer nation.
Speaking on the theme; “Chemical Technology as a Frontier for Nigeria’s Industrialisation and Economic Development,” Barminas called on stakeholders and policy makers to be duly synergised.
“To improve the present trend of chemical technological development in Nigeria, interests should border more on the reinvention and application of advanced materials and processes.
“A sound knowledge of applied chemistry is very key to resource management and all attendant environmental issues,”he said.
Barminas, who enumerated the key functions of the institute, noted that the chemical industry has made significant contributions to human life backed by a rich heritage of innovation.
“Every product, material and object we own or use owe it’s existence in some way to this vital sector.
” Our food supply, medicines, clothing and mobile devices all depend on the chemical industry,” he said
However, he regretted that Nigeria was heavily dependent on the importation of industrial chemicals which inhibits the country from benefitting from the global chemical market.