Dr DanAzumi M. Ibrahim is the Director General and Chief Executive Officer, National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP) whose responsibilities among other things, is to regulate the inflow of foreign technology in Nigeria. In this exclusive interview with Tony Nwakaegho held in Lagos during the Etisalat Prize Award for Innovation, he spoke extensively on why Nigerians are still consumers of foreign technologies and the way forward. Excerpts:
How has National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP) which you head been carrying out its responsibilities in the technology ecosystem in Nigeria?
NOTAP is one of the 17 parastatals of the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology. It is charged with the responsibilities among others to regulate the inflow of foreign technology in Nigeria. But we also have the responsibility to ensure that we encourage and promote locally developed technologies. So that we have in-house technologies, that could contribute in the social economic development of our country, Nigeria.
Etisalat and other private sectors normally enter into agreement with their technical partners outside the nation and it is with this agreement we register in NOTAP. But before we register the agreement we have to subject that type of agreement into a thorough process of evaluation. And this evaluation is done in three major perspectives-the legal, economic and technical perspectives.
When such agreements sometimes come into the country, Nigerians are in hurry to sign it. Some of the clauses in the agreement are not in tandem with the law establishing the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Where we see within the scope of such agreement that there are clauses that are at variance with the law of the Federal Republic of Nigeria we advise that either you expunge it or you modify it to suit our interest. The economic perspective is the price Nigerian counterpart is paying to the technical partner outside the country. Is it commensurate to the technology it is bringing? Is the technology complex enough to warrant that we have to go outside this country to look for a technical partner? The third and perhaps the most important perspective as far as we are concern, is within the scope of this agreement there must be clauses that will ensure that some part of those technologies are impacted on Nigerians through training. It is through this process that we should be able to not only develop our own technology, but we should be able to reduce the level of foreign technology consumption. From our activities we realized that over 90 percent of our technologies that we consume as a nation; is it in the manufacturing sector, ICT, telecommunication sectors, in all aspect of our lives are imported. And we pay a lot of money to service this. So any nation that is aspiring to become economically independent, any nation that is aspiring to develop actually cannot fold its arms and continue business as usual.
Nigeria has been touted to be consumers of foreign items and over 90 percent of the country’s technologies as you said are imported. What informed this trend?
Technologies are emanating from research and development efforts. They are product of skill and knowledge. To tell you about the level of our knowledge infrastructure, technologies are emanating from Research establishments, from Universities and Polytechnics. But since our Universities and Polytechnics are not doing enough to bring out technologies that could power the Nigerian economy, it’s a pity that we have to rely a lot of our technological needs from other people from outside. But now this scenario, the economy recession that we have, presents an opportunity for us to look inward. So far with the infrastructure deficit in the system we cannot say we will rely solely on what come out from us. We can allow technologies to come into the country and we leverage on what others have done and now we use what is called the human magnet to decode some of these technologies so that we begin to adjust them, absolve them and transform them into our own technologies.
You mentioned that NOTAP has introduced the use of human magnet in our technology, could you expatiate on this?
What I mean by human magnet you see technology is a product of research and development efforts. It is a product of intellectual activity with your brains so if you have very intelligent people who now come and understudy technology coming in within two to three years they will be able to decode some of them, understand the technologies and probably adjust them to suit our own interest.
What is your agency facing in terms of funding in the technology ecosystem in Nigeria?
Well it is not only our agency. It is like every other agency in terms of funding. I think NOTAP is the most poorly funded in science and tech. But that notwithstanding we can still with the little resources that we have do our best.
Has the sponsorship of those pursuing their Masters and Doctorate degree in science and Technology in Nigeria by NOTAP impacted on the nation’s economy?
It is a programme that we started last year and the organized private sectors are providing funding for very intelligent Nigerians who are going for PhD from Masters’ Degree. They are given them full scholarship all in an effort to build capacity in the system. Their research and development efforts are based on the operations of those industries. By the time they conclude the research it may be readily available for commercialization because the need is there. It is from the needs of the industry that they came out with the research and development efforts. Through this process we will be able to change the focus of research and development from a mere academic exercise to a target or problem solving research. Private sectors like Julius Berger, Dolpine, Indomie among others are providing funding for these very intelligent Nigerians to go for PhD from Masters’ Degree.
What has NOTAP done to encourage the original equipment manufacturers in Nigeria?
We are promoting technology, that is our role and so whatever they do, we promote. We hold annual techno marketing fair that we bring in investors, industry fabricators, policy makers and financiers to see what Nigerians could do, so that they will begin to patronize them. But there are other institutions responsible for this.
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