The Director General of the Federal Institute of Industrial Research Oshodi (FIIRO), Prof. Gloria Elemo has called for a proper mechanism for commercialization of innovations for socio-economic development.

Prof. Elemo disclosed this at the National Forum on Commercialization of Indigenous Research and Development Result during FIIRO day at Techno-Expo, 2018 in Abuja. According to Prof. Elemo, Nigeria has developed tons of indigenous technologies that are capable of promoting it into an industrialized nation.

Speaking on the theme “Stimulating Economic Growth through Commercialization of indigenous Research and Development, she said the overall objective of the Forum is to bring stakeholders together to discuss commercialization of indigenous research and development result and to critically examine the benefits of commercialization for national socio-economic development.

The mandate of the Institute, which was established since 1956, she added, is to research and develops technologies to turn around the socio-economic fortunes of Nigeria. She added that the institute is already partnering with indigenous automation company, Automation and Engineering Nig. Limited to come up with two automated plants for Kunu and Zobo which was launched at the Expo 2018 on 6th March, 2018.

Earlier, the Minister of Science and Technology, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu who was represented by the Director, Science and Technology promotions in the Ministry, Dr. Ekanem Udoh, urged all participants in conjunction with FIIRO to share ideas and come up with the best results that will move the nation forward.

In his key note address titled “Research and Development commercialization: Pancea for wealth creation and economic growth in Nigeria”,  Prof. Mathew Ilori of the African Institute for Science Policy and Innovation, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria said that developing nations can no longer compete based only on their natural resource endowments and location advantages. He stressed that for a nation to become competitive in this era of globalisation, there was the need for such nation to apply scientific methods to her natural resources for value addition.

The Executive Director, African Network for Drug and Diagnostics Innovation (ANDI), Dr. Solomon Nwaka, stated that ANDI was established to promote African-led health product innovation through the assembly of collaborative networks, and building of capacity to support public health and development. He added that It is also intended to create a sustainable platform for health innovation in Africa to address Africa’s health needs by coordinating and fully leveraged on existing capacity to solve local problems set up Intra-African collaboration and capacity utilization.