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By Rose Okudaye /Oluwaferanmi Abodurin
Stakeholders in Nigeria’s innovation ecosystem have advocated stronger regulatory frameworks and increased investment in research commercialisation.
They made the call during a panel session at a two—day National Technology and Innovation Summit (NTIS 2.0) held in Lagos on Wednesday.
The Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer MTN Nigeria, Mr Babalola Oyeleye, said there was the need for investors to adopt a long-term approach to supporting innovation.
He said that ecosystem development required patience and capital.
Oyeleye advised better coordination among regulators to reduce overlapping responsibilities that could hinder businesses.
He urged industry players to demonstrate greater commitment to local enterprises and domestic production.
He cited the Law Innovation Hub, involving IHS, Co-Creation hub and Future Africa, as an examples of how government, infrastructure providers, innovators and investors could collaborate to create an enabling environment for innovation.
The Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology, Dr Kingsley Udeh, emphasised the need to transform Nigeria’s research output into commercially viable technologies.
He was represented at the event by Umar Bindir, the former Director-General, National Office for Technology, Acquisition and Promotion(NOTAP).
Udeh said the country should move beyond producing academic research to patenting, acquiring and commercialising technologies capable of solving societal problems and creating economic value.
He argued that Nigeria needed to transition from a largely import-dependent economy to one capable of developing and producing goods locally through technology acquisition and innovation.
According to him, research institutions and universities should not merely produce manpower, but should generate data, technologies and intellectual property that can support national development.
Udeh also challenged Nigerian universities to raise their standards to compete with leading global institutions such as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Cambridge University.
He identified the disconnect between university research and industrial needs, poor digital connectivity and inadequate infrastructure as major impediments to effective research and innovation.
He further advocated the establishment of innovation centres, technology transfer offices and research trust bodies within universities to enable institutions to generate revenue from their knowledge and reduce dependence on government funding.
The Consul General of Denmark, Jette Bjerrum, said Nigeria should avoid copying innovation models from developed, stressing the need to develop solutions suited to the country’s peculiar circumstances.
She pointed to innovation ecosystems in India as examples from which Nigeria could draw lessons while adapting them to local realities.
Bjerrum said that international collaboration could help Nigerian researchers, entrepreneurs and institutions to exchange ideas.
The panel identified the Nigerian Diaspora as a critical resource that could contribute significantly to the country’s innovation ecosystem if appropriate policies were developed to facilitate the transfer of expertise, networks and capital.
It also empahised strengthening Nigeria’s innovation ecosystem as it identified weak links between academia and industry, regulatory overlaps, inadequate infrastructure and limited access to patent capital as major barriers to the country’s innovation ambitions.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the NTIS 2.0 summit was organised by NOTAP under the theme: “From research to wealth: Strengthening innovation, commercialisation and technology sovereignty in Nigeria.”(NAN)
Edited by Uche Anunne
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