By Grace Udofia
As part of efforts to facilitate economic growth and competitiveness, Nigeria’s President, Muhammadu Buhari has okayed a change of name for the Ministry of Science and Technology to Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation.
According to the president, changing the name of the ministry will help Nigeria be among top nations of global innovators.
The Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, Ogbonnaya Onu disclosed this on behalf of the President on Friday in Abuja.
Onu said “The change of name was to facilitate economic growth and global competitiveness as well as to make Nigeria a nation of innovators.
“In 2017 the Federal Executive Council, under the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari, approved the National Science, Technology and Innovation Roadmap (NSTIR 2017-2030).
“This was to use Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) to catalyse Nigeria’s economic growth and competitiveness.
“This document laid out a core policy for driving positive socio-economic outcomes through science, technology and innovation in all activities of the economy,’’ Onu said.
“This had necessitated the ministry’s change of name to the Federal Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, as approved by the Presidency.
“The new development would require the ministry to drive the Innovation Agenda by embarking on a branding campaign, in line with its expected mandate in ensuring productivity and economic growth.
Continuing, Onu added that the change would help to meet the need of other sectors of the economy and all stakeholders by supporting the generation and application of knowledge to solve socio-economic challenges.
“As an enabler of government, society and industry through policy, the ministry shall focus on ensuring the provision of STI-based solutions to overcome societal challenges”, he added.
Onu explained that the approval of the change of name would be in gazette to enable legal and policy frameworks to reflect institutional and organisational arrangements, effective coordination, among others.
According to him, the new development will help the ministry to bring a shift in Research and Development which is industry and service demand-driven, resulting in rapid commercialisation and improved global competiveness.
“We all know that there has been a missing link with the statutory responsibility of the ministry.
“This decision by the President will ensure that the missing link will be adequately addressed.
“Immediately we are able to commercialise Research and Development breakthroughs, the nation’s global competitiveness ranking will improve tremendously with varying degrees of development that are sustainable.
“These include a robust STI ecosystem that will accommodate continuous system improvement, product quality enhancement and guaranteed standardisation of ‘Made-In-Nigeria’ goods and services.
“Nigeria would experience irreversible indigenous industralisation with adequate platform for higher productivity,” he added.
