Over the years our problem in Nigeria has been over-reliance on importation; we import almost everything we consume or use. Over the long term, any economy that specializes in exporting primary products and importing manufactures would end up having terms of trade shifting against it. This compounded with over reliance on Oil, which itself has suffered from swindling rocking prices, has put our economy on its knees and thus recession. We have all primary resources to boast our economy by immediately switching to manufacturing, better still advanced manufacturing with the help of technology
That is why the government felt that it is necessary for us to have the right partners that will transfer these technologies to us. These technologies will then be domesticated with research agencies in the country for the benefit of Nigerians and relevant stakeholders. Priority areas for the transfer of technology include agriculture and food technology, ICT, transport, Nano science and technology, genomic medicine, pharmaceuticals, energy, mining among others.
It is based on this that the President set up this committee so that we can see to the full implementation of this agreement which will benefit targeted sectors in the economy. Such move and effort from the government would help push Nigeria toward self-reliance, with huge reduction in foreign spending as well as improve our capacity and production. And we can even begin to export manufactured products to other African countries, who are currently going out of the continent for trade.
Using the best manufacturing technologies to achieve quality in the products made in the country is critical for us to stay highly competitive with the Global market and convince our sister nations in Africa to trade with us.
The Presidential Implementation Committee for Technology Transfer aims to complement Nigeria’s national development agenda in addition to acting as a catalyst for economic diversification program which aims at taking us off the dependence on Oil. Our projects would improve capacity and processes of individuals, businesses and benefit all businessmen qualified to benefit from such technology transfer more especially in agriculture, mining and SMEs.
This implementation committee of Memorandum of Understanding between Czech Republic and the Federal Republic of Nigeria on technology transfer and joint research for the mutual benefits of the two countries, but most importantly, for bridging technology gap between Nigeria and developed nations.