Abuja, May 16, 2023 – Dr Olorunnimbe Mamara, the Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, has suggested that government should ban all imported goods that can be produced locally.
Mamora gave the advice on Tuesday at the ministerial media briefing held at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
He expressed regret that most of the inventions by agencies under his ministry were gathering dust on shelves because of lack of patronage.
Mamora said his ministry was having a challenge taking research products to the market, saying that it is only when that is done that the ministry would be seen as doing something.
According to him, while the ministry would continue to engage the relevant stakeholders, it is also thinking of legislation to compel the protection of the inventions before pushing them to the market.
The minister said It was interesting that nearly all the agencies under the ministry had developed one invention or the other.
“But the challenge had always been taking these research outputs to the market because until and unless we are able to take them to the market, we would not be seen to have been able to do something.
“We need to do more in terms of having that handshake between the research institutions and the market through investors and those who are interested, people that move around with their capital and would want to invest.
“So, it’s a challenge that we know we are still facing which we will need to do more.
“So, what we are doing is to continue to engage, to continue to have fora for these engagements where we can bring all stakeholders together.
“We are also looking at how we can compel, as it were, a little bit of legislation that once these things are available, particularly if they are protected because we also need to protect the intellectual property, we can just push them to the markets,’ he said.
