8TH RMRDC
TECHNO- EXPO HOLDS, SCORES HIGH ON PUBLIC/PRIVATE SECTOR
PARTICIPATION
For four days, the RMRDC 8th
technology exhibition fair occupied the center stage of all
activities and attention at the Raw Materials Research and
Development Council (RMRDC). Designed to show-case Nigeria’s
technological and scientific innovations, the
RMRDC
Techno-Expo, 2006, which took place on Monday, 13th November, to
Thursday 16th, 2006, at the corporate Headquarters of the
Council, Abuja, attracted Nigeria inventors and their counterparts
from Ghana, Senegal, Togo and Mali.
Items on display included
agro-processing machines, processed raw materials and other
inventions in science and technology and two made in Nigeria luxury
automobiles.
Cognizant of the pivotal role of
scientific innovation and its progenitors in economic development,
the Senate President, Ken Nnamani, who flagged off the ceremony,
assured the participants at the fair that laws would soon be made to
protect the intellectual property rights of Nigerian inventors.
Engineers install a Cassava Starch
Processing
plant by NIJI-LUKAS
for display at the Fair
He added that fresh moves would
be made by the upper chamber of the National Assembly to engender
and encourage technological ingenuity and creativity of Nigerian
scientists and inventors and make it possible for entrepreneurs to
invest in their innovations.
Senator Nnamani said that it was
the responsibility of government to establish a favourable policy
environment that encourages science and technological innovations
and motivate venture capitalists to invest in innovative ideas and
designs.
This years Techno-Expo whose
theme was “Promoting local content through the development of
Nigeria’s raw materials Resources towards achieving sustainable
industrial growth”, provided a platform for the exchange of ideas
between researchers, process equipment designers and fabricators,
and primary raw materials producers on one hand, and manufacturers
and producers of finished products on another.
Noting that the Exposition, for
the first time, had attracted participation from West African
countries, Nnamani averred that no investor would stake his
investment in new technologies if the intellectual property laws
were not business-friendly even as he noted that the challenge for
the economic team was to improve the productivity of the Nigerian
economy by improving on productivity for all the sectors of the
economy, or at best sustaining its modest growth with the
partnership of the private sector.
Said he: “Government alone may
not make the required investment in research and development.
Business firms and charitable organizations have a role to play. We
must note that the biggest research outfit that laid the basis for
the Silicon Valley-Bell Laboratories was owned by AT&T and not the
United States (US) government.”
Announcing the desire of the
National Assembly to provide legislative support to remove some bottle-necks that might mitigate against
efforts to develop the agricultural and industrial sectors, he
assured that the lawmakers would not relent in their desire to
support efforts to commercialize the production of local raw
materials for industrial utilization.
“We will also provide support to
the newly constituted Presidential Committee on Innovation to enable
it translate research and development findings into commercial
products,” he said.
In her speech, the Chairman of
the RMRDC Governing Board, Chief (Mrs.) Paulen Tallen, said the fair
was meant to bring investors and inventors together to facilitate
the exploitation of untapped intellectual resources available in the
country for the exploitation and processing of the abundant natural
raw materials resources in Nigeria, while also exposing the huge
investment potentials in the country.
Chuks Ngaha
