 |
President
Muhammadu Buhari meeting the Nigerian Community in China
|
The Federal Government
has called on Nigerians in the Diaspora to return home and seize the various
economic opportunities to make billions of naira.
PREMIUM
TIMES report continues:
The
Minister of Science and Technology, Ogbonnaya Onu, made the call at an
investment forum organized in New York by his ministry for Nigerians in the
U.S.
Mr.
Onu explained that various investment opportunities currently existed and were
waiting for them at home, challenging them to take it before they were given to
foreigners.
The
former governor of Abia from 1992 to 1993, informed the Diaspora Nigerians that
various research products with opportunities to yield billions of naira, were
waiting for them at home.
“We
are asking you to come and be billionaires. That is what we are asking you, not
millionaires. Come and make billions.
“We
will give you products of research at nothing or little cost to you because it
would be nice for the agency that has done this research to get some little
returns.
“It
would also be nice for the scientists, engineers who were involved in doing
this research just to get something, that’s all but it would be very small.
“So,
we give it (research products) to you, knowing that you will keep the money in
Nigeria, you will help employ Nigerians and you will help to grow our Gross
Domestic Product (GDP).
“That
is our interest; that is the reason why we are here,” the minister said.
Mr.
Onu explained that the agencies under the ministry had already developed the
research products through various stages of tests and trials.
We
are asking Nigerians in the Diaspora that, think home, come and take the
researches that we have done, he said.
“We
have taken them to a level where you can now immediately convert them into
products, make money out of it; that is the message.”
The
minister, who returned to Nigeria from the U.S. in 1981, said as a policy,
researchers would not be involved in the commercialization of the research
products to enable them concentrate on innovation rather than money.
He
said that one of the agencies under the ministry was already working on a cure
for epilepsy and was only awaiting the final stages of trials by the National
Agency for Food Drugs Administration and Control, NAFDAC.
“We
are working on a cure for epilepsy; there is a drug that one of our agencies is
working on, it is being tested now.
“And
we know that epilepsy is a disease that is worldwide and this agency will not
on its own commercialize this drug.
“For
NAFDAC to give its approval, there are so many stages of trials and tests that
the drug has to pass through.
“But
at the time that it must have satisfied all these conditions, we don’t want our
researchers to go into commercialization.
“Because if we do that, they would no longer continue with research; everybody would prefer to go and make money,” he said.
No comments:
Post a Comment