NOTAP arrests N192bn ICT capital flight
Boosts local software development
Following the resilience and vigilance of National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP) in enforcing local content inclusion in information and communication technology (ICT) related businesses, the Agency has wedged N192billion capital flight from the country.
The director general, Dr. DanAzumi Ibrahim, who made this disclosure said that this was achieved through NOTAP’s refusal to approve for importation of technologies and services that could be rendered by Nigerians.
Ibrahim explained that the measure was to ensure the acceleration of Nigeria’s drive towards a rapid technological revolution by an efficient assimilation and/or absorption of foreign technology and a concerted development of indigenous technological capacity through a proactive commercialisation and promotion of locally motivated technologies.
The DG NOTAP lamented that about 90 per cent of technologies used in Nigeria are still imported, but expressed confidence that the situation is improving as NOTAP has secured about 38 patents for agencies and private researchers in the first half of 2017.
He noted that the patents were delivered to the researchers’ institutions at no cost to the owners.
‘NOTAP is not resting on its oars to ensure the acceleration of Nigeria’s drive towards a rapid technological revolution. In carrying out our statutory function of registration of Technology Transfer Agreement (TTA), we have saved the Country the N192billion between 2010 and 2016.
‘This sum, if not for NOTAP intervention would have left the country as capital flight. This is achieved through refusal to approve for importation of technologies as well as services that could be rendered by Nigerians’, he said.
He posited that with the assistance of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), the Agency established Intellectual Property and Technology Transfer Offices (IPTTOS) in some pioneer Nigerian knowledge institutions to first of all create the awareness on the importance of intellectual property protection (IPR).
“This programme was aimed at sensitising and refocusing the minds of Nigerian researchers towards embarking on market and demand-driven research rather than change the thinking of Nigerian knowledge industry to reawaken their subconscious that their research results which lie waste in the shelves could actually be translated to products and services.
“NOTAP also introduced local vendor policy to assist in development of local content initiative of the Federal Government. About 70 per cent of the Technology Transfer Agreements handled by NOTAP are mainly on software licensing with a huge sum of money being paid to the foreign software owners,” the DG added.
He affirmed that in order to encourage local software development, NOTAP introduced a policy that 40 per cent of the annual maintenance fee goes to the local vendor working with the company and this has improved software development in Nigeria.
Tony Nwakaegho
