Maximize Opportunities To Reposition The Country – NACETEM DG Urges Researchers

The Director General of the National Centre for Technology Management (NACETEM), an Agency of the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology, Engr. Professor Okechukwu Ukwuoma, has enjoined researchers to maximize opportunities to improve their performances and use the knowledge acquired to reposition the country.

The Director General, National Centre for Technology Management (NACETEM), Engr. Professor Okechukwu Ukwuoma

The NACETEM DG said this at the ‘Researchers Retreat’ organised for all the researchers of the Agency in Akure, Ondo State capital, where he was being honoured with the “Personality of the Year Award”

NACETEM as an Agency of government, provides critical knowledge support in the area of science, technology and innovation management through capacity building in Technology Management (Short term courses, Postgraduate Diploma and Master’s degree in Technology Mana), policy research and consultancy.

Speaking on the importance of the retreat, Prof Ukwuoma said that the retreat was part of the on-going efforts by the Buhari-led administration to have top quality personnel with requisite knowledge that can deliver on the mandate of the CHANGE AGENDA, and who can as well change the economy from resource-based to knowledge-based and innovation driven.

He further explained that it was also organised to further enhance the researchers capacities for the onerous task of deploying science, technology and innovation towards effecting the change we desire to see in Nigeria’s economy and for attainment of sustainable development.

Prof Ukwuoma who expressed his gratitude to the Minister of Science and Technology, Dr Ogbonaya Onu, for his support to the Agency, opined that ‘the difference between developed and developing countries is knowledge-related gap, particularly for scientific and technological development’.

According to him, “if the current knowledge gap is allowed to widen, the discontent of some parts of the world will eventually put the creative growth of all societies to a halt”.

“It is important for us to understand that even in the world of discovery and intellectual innovation, there are those who create value and those who merely extract value. If we cannot create value let us at least try to extract value for development’.

The retreat had in attendance scholars of international repute such as Professor Ganiyu  Adesola Aderonmu, the Director, Centre of Excellence in Software Management, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife and the current President of Nigerian Computer Society, among others.

Speaking, Professor Aderonmu espoused how researchers in Nigeria can work collaboratively with the international community, especially in accessing grants for transformation of the nation’s economy through quality research.

Other issues discussed ranged from managing research process to strategies for engaging policy makers in evidence-based policy development and diversification of Nigeria’s economy through research and development.

This is even as the Director-General/CEO, Ukwuoma, who had through his welfarist and innovative leadership moved the Agency from the precipice of collapse back to limelight, was honoured by the Niger Delta Students Union Government as ‘2017 Personality of the Year’.