By DADA JACKSON
The Nigerian Academy of Engineering (NAE), has called for improved collaboration between government, industry and academia for growth in the techno-entrepreneurship sector and engineering fields.
A Past President of the academy, Mrs Joanna Maduka, made this known at a public lecture she delivered, on: “Government-lndustry-Academia collaboration in Nigeria’s techno-entrepreneurship eco-system”/investiture of Prof. Rahamon Bello, as the 13th of the Academy in Lagos.
Maduka said Nigeria needs pragmatic solutions to surmount the country’s enormous challenges in areas such as power, transportation, agriculture, industrialisation, healthcare, communications, education, and unemployment.
She explained that opportunities for growth and improvement are vast through Government-lndustry-Academia (GIA) collaboration to solve identified problems, adding that GIA is essential for fostering innovation, economic growth, and sustainable development in Nigeria’s technopreneurship ecosystem.
According to her, through initiatives like CcHub, National Information Technology Development Agency programmes, TEEP, AUSTIEM partnerships, and FOTE programmes, significant strides have been made in fostering innovation and entrepreneurship. However, she observed that addressing the challenges through strategic reforms and investment is essential to fully realise the potential of such collaborations.
By working together, she said the Government, Industry, and Academia can create a thriving ecosystem that supports technopreneurs, drives economic growth, and reduces poverty in Nigeria.
“The dominance of Asian National in the current world technopreneurship is illustrative of the opportunities available to a country like Nigeria. Indian Nationals seem now to monopolize the largest tech industries as Chief Executives as with Apple, Microsoft, IBM, Adobe Systems and so on.The roles played by the Indian government, for example, with notable IIT (Indian Institutes of Technology) should be a model for Nigeria to re-visit. The Nigerian Academy of Engineering must formalize a method of contributing to solving some of the pressing country’s problems,” she said.
Maduka doubles as a past President of Association of Professional Women Engineers of Nigeria (APWEN), noted that the benefits of GIA collaboration include increased research and development, improved education and skill development, enhance innovation, economic growth as technopreneurship drives job creation and generating revenues.
She said despite the progress made through government-industry- academia collaboration in Nigeria, the technopreneurship ecosystem faces several challenges, including limited funding and infrastructure, regulatory hurdles, and skill gap
In his inaugural address, the new president, Rahamon Bello, noted that the academy is made up of mostly engineering experts who are only willing and ready to part with most of the expertise and experience they have acquired over their lifetime to help solve Nigerian problems in perpetuity, if so challenged.
He said as a Think Tank on engineering matters, the role needs to be further exploited to make life better in the country.
Bello said the academy must find a way to get governments and other stakeholders in Nigeria to make use of this great potential through advocacy and Policy briefs.
He said the academy’s Strategic Plan has just been reviewed and the initiatives to make it work better have been sharpened.
“We should be able to work the talk and force our way to make the difference in this nation. The dearth of the lowest cadre of the engineering family (the technicians and artisans) in Nigeria must be immediately addressed. The Academy has commenced efforts to devote appropriate attention to the re-development of Technical and Vocational education and skills in Nigeria as the starting point.The promotion of engineering businesses will see the nation back on its feet,” he said.
In his valedictory address, the outgoing President, Prof Peter Onwualu, said a lot of achievements were recorded during his tenure, which were focused on developing science, technology and engineering practice and fostering improved growth.
On the state of the nation, Onwualu said it is no longer news that all is not well with the Nigerian economy, adding that while the academy commend the Federal Government and state governments for the bold decisions steps taken in the last one year to reposition the Nigerian economy, the reality on ground is that renewed hope promised Nigerians by the new government at the federal level and state levels appears to be a mirage.
“We can see and feel the current challenges including high cost of food other essentials occasioned by uncontrolled inflation, power and energy insecurity, dysfunctional infrastructure. Other areas of challenge include: environment and climate change, education, unemployment, mass exodus of Nigerian Youths and Professionals and corruption. We believe that these challenges can be resolved if the various good programmes that the government is implementing are implemented well. As a matter of fact, most of these problems can be solved if we adopt a technology-based approach to development in all sectors of the economy,” he said.
According to him, while imported technology, equipment and skills is needed, the nation must find a way to develop its innovation sector in such a way that engineering and technology driven by Nigerian engineers will be used to implement all programmes.
“This can be fast tracked if government prioritises the activation of the National Research and Innovation Council which is proposed in the current National Science, technology and Innovation Policy. The Council will then establish a National Research Fund which will fund Research and Innovation work in public and private sectors, academic and industrial sectors of the economy to ensure that all technologies and engineering skills required to develop the economy are produced in Nigeria by Nigerians,” he said.
The forum featured induction of 13 new fellows and life achievement awards to deserving members, who are 75 years of age.
Earlier, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Lagos, Prof Folasade Ogunsola, said the practice of engineering is changing with the development in Artificial intelligence, internet of things, data analytics, engineering education will require a major shift through new policies, increased collaboration and interdisciplinary research.
She said collaboration is therefore pivotal for innovations required to drive growth.
Ogunsola lauded the academy for commitment towards development of engineering practice and ensuring cordial relationship with the academia.
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