|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
By Akanji Alowolodu, Gombe
A total sum of N79.6 billion has been saved for Nigeria in the past four years by the National Office of Technology Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP) through its various activities in promoting local technology and advancement.
The disclosure was made by the director-general of NOTAP, Dr Dan’azumi Mohammed Ibrahim at the commissioning of the Gombe State University Intellectual Property and Technology Transfer Office established by NOTAP.
He said the money was saved from 2015 to 2019 through registration of agreements among technical partners by reviewing the agreements and making sure that foreign partners did not extort Nigerians.
According to him, “Cumulatively, from any agreement that we made, we cumulated them. So between 2015 to 2019, we saved N79.63 billion that would have gone out of the country,”.
The NOTAP DG added that aside from commissioning of the Intellectual Property and Technology Transfer Office in the university, NOTAP would conduct introductory training to the University staff on its operations.
The initiative he explained was meant to promote the translation of knowledge into products and services and by extension boosting technology and innovation in the nation.
Also, the state Commissioner for Science and Technology, Dr Aisha Umar Maigari, who lauded NOTAP for the gesture, said the state government would compile a data bank of innovators and inventors across the state with a view to supporting them with grants to invent and commercialize their products.
In his remarks, the vice chancellor of the University, Professor Aliyu Usman Elnafaty said that the programme would help the university community to harness its talents and innovate stuffs that would be beneficial to the state and country.
He then assured NOTAP that the University community will seize the opportunity to engage in technical training and development in order to provide such to the manpower department of not only Gombe state but the country as a whole.
