Academy seeks public, private sectors collaboration for engineering devt

The Nigerian Academy of Engineering has called for improved collaboration between the government, industry and academia for growth in the techno-entrepreneurship sector and engineering fields.

A former president of the academy, Joanna Maduka, stated that at a lecture she delivered on “Government-industry-Academia collaboration in Nigeria’s techno-entrepreneurship ecosystem,” at the investiture of Prof Rahamon Bello as the new president of the Nigerian Academy of Engineering recently held 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.

“Opportunities for growth and improvement are vast through government-industry-academia collaboration to solve identified problems.”

She added that collaboration was essential for fostering innovation, economic growth, and sustainable development in Nigeria’s technopreneurship ecosystem.

By working together, she said the government, industry, and academia could create a thriving ecosystem that supports technopreneurs, drives economic growth, and reduces poverty in Nigeria.

“The dominance of Asian nationals in the current world technopreneurship illustrates the opportunities available to a country like Nigeria.

 Indian nationals now seem to monopolise the largest tech industries as Chief Executives as with Apple, Microsoft, IBM, Adobe Systems, etc.

“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 formalise a method of contributing to solving some of the pressing country’s problems,” she noted.

She said despite the progress made through government-industry-academia collaboration in Nigeria, the technopreneurship ecosystem faced several challenges, including limited funding and infrastructure, regulatory hurdles, and skill gap
In his inaugural address, the new president of the Nigerian Academy of Engineering, Bello, noted that the academy was made up of mostly engineering experts who were willing and ready to part with most of the expertise and experience they had acquired over their lifetime, to help solve Nigerian problems in perpetuity, if so challenged.

He declared that the academy must find a way to get governments and other stakeholders in Nigeria to make use of the great potential through advocacy and policy briefs.

“We should be able to work the talk and force our way to make a 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 of the academy, Prof Peter Onwualu, stated that many achievements were recorded during his tenure.

According to Onwualu, while imported technology, equipment, and skills are 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 the 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 elucidated.