The National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP) has said it saved Nigeria some N240 billion in 10 years of combatting capital flight, reports ITREALMS.
NOTAP, ITREALMS recalls is an agency of government, saddled with the responsibility of among other things, to regulate the inflow of from technology into the country through the registration of technology transfer agreements and at the same time, encourage the efficient adaptation, assimilation and domestication of foreign technologies.
The Director General of NOTAP, Dr. DanAzumi Mohammed Ibrahim made this statement in Enugu, while presenting the agency’s scorecard at the just concluded 2019 Technology and Innovation Expo, tagged “Science, Technology and Innovation for Economic Recovery and Sustainable Development.
"In the course of carrying out these onerous functions, the Office has saved the country over N240 Billion that would have gone out of the country as capital flight," he declared.
The DG also stated that the savings were achieved through NOTAP’s refusal to approve for importation of technologies and services that could be rendered by Nigerians.
He added that most time, when Nigerian entrepreneurs enter into technology transfer agreement with their foreign counterparts, the agreements are drafted in such a way that indigenous technologists/service providers do not benefit, rather expatriates will be deployed to execute jobs that Nigerians are competent enough to handle. “Through NOTAP’s interventions, such agreements are not approved unless redrafted to take care of indigenous technologists/skills”.
Dr. Ibrahim said the measure was to ensure the acceleration of Nigerian’s bid towards technological revolution through an efficient assimilation and absorption of foreign technology and concerted efforts geared towards the development of indigenous skills.
He further revealed that NOTAP evaluates technology transfer agreement in three perspectives, legal, economic and technical perspectives. He added that in legal perspective, the office ensures that the provisions of the agreements are in tandem with the laws of the land and does not in any form, contain unwarranted and restrictive clauses. The economic perspective is considered to ensure that the services being retendered are commensurate with the fees payable while the technical consideration is to ensure that the agreement has provision for capacity building and knowledge transfer.
He informed the gathering that NOTAP had initiated other notable programmes in collaboration with the industry to ensure rapid development of Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) such as NOTAP Industry Technology Transfer Fellowship (NITTF). This according to him is to assist Nigerian in breeding highly skilled manpower that could attract both local and international highway jobs.
The DG reiterated that the programme was achieved through selection of first class and second class upper division Nigerians who are passionately interested in taking teaching as a profession for a PhD academic programme in selected Nigerian Universities.
Dr. Ibrahim also informed the audience that in order to bridge the gap between the academia and Industry, NOTAP established 43 Intellectual Property and Technology Transfer Offices (IPTTOs) across Nigerian knowledge institutions. He added that the culture of Intellectual Property in Nigeria was weak but with the establishment of IPTTOs, the numbers of patents secured by Nigerian researchers have progressively increased.
He regretted that the IPTTO has not covered as much institutions as NOTAP would have loved to owing to paucity of funds, but promised that even with the meager budgetary allocation to the Office, IPTTOs shall be established in more institutions for techno-economic development of the country.
Uboshe Uboshe/Editor
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NOTAP, ITREALMS recalls is an agency of government, saddled with the responsibility of among other things, to regulate the inflow of from technology into the country through the registration of technology transfer agreements and at the same time, encourage the efficient adaptation, assimilation and domestication of foreign technologies.
The Director General of NOTAP, Dr. DanAzumi Mohammed Ibrahim made this statement in Enugu, while presenting the agency’s scorecard at the just concluded 2019 Technology and Innovation Expo, tagged “Science, Technology and Innovation for Economic Recovery and Sustainable Development.
"In the course of carrying out these onerous functions, the Office has saved the country over N240 Billion that would have gone out of the country as capital flight," he declared.
The DG also stated that the savings were achieved through NOTAP’s refusal to approve for importation of technologies and services that could be rendered by Nigerians.
He added that most time, when Nigerian entrepreneurs enter into technology transfer agreement with their foreign counterparts, the agreements are drafted in such a way that indigenous technologists/service providers do not benefit, rather expatriates will be deployed to execute jobs that Nigerians are competent enough to handle. “Through NOTAP’s interventions, such agreements are not approved unless redrafted to take care of indigenous technologists/skills”.
Dr. Ibrahim said the measure was to ensure the acceleration of Nigerian’s bid towards technological revolution through an efficient assimilation and absorption of foreign technology and concerted efforts geared towards the development of indigenous skills.
He further revealed that NOTAP evaluates technology transfer agreement in three perspectives, legal, economic and technical perspectives. He added that in legal perspective, the office ensures that the provisions of the agreements are in tandem with the laws of the land and does not in any form, contain unwarranted and restrictive clauses. The economic perspective is considered to ensure that the services being retendered are commensurate with the fees payable while the technical consideration is to ensure that the agreement has provision for capacity building and knowledge transfer.
He informed the gathering that NOTAP had initiated other notable programmes in collaboration with the industry to ensure rapid development of Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) such as NOTAP Industry Technology Transfer Fellowship (NITTF). This according to him is to assist Nigerian in breeding highly skilled manpower that could attract both local and international highway jobs.
The DG reiterated that the programme was achieved through selection of first class and second class upper division Nigerians who are passionately interested in taking teaching as a profession for a PhD academic programme in selected Nigerian Universities.
Dr. Ibrahim also informed the audience that in order to bridge the gap between the academia and Industry, NOTAP established 43 Intellectual Property and Technology Transfer Offices (IPTTOs) across Nigerian knowledge institutions. He added that the culture of Intellectual Property in Nigeria was weak but with the establishment of IPTTOs, the numbers of patents secured by Nigerian researchers have progressively increased.
He regretted that the IPTTO has not covered as much institutions as NOTAP would have loved to owing to paucity of funds, but promised that even with the meager budgetary allocation to the Office, IPTTOs shall be established in more institutions for techno-economic development of the country.
Uboshe Uboshe/Editor
*JOIN our alert's group | Share stories with us | Advert placement: WhatsApp | SMS: +2348033592762 *Twitter: @ITREALMS *Email: itrealms.dsa@gmail.com*
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