NACETEM DG, Prof Ukwuoma Appreciates Staff For Agency’s Unprecedented Achievements In 2021

—Charges Them To Do More Remarkable Achievements In 2022

Engr. Prof. Okechukwu Ukwuoma, the Director-General/Chief Executive Officer of the National Centre for Technology Management (NACETEM), has encouraged the staff and members of the agency not to rest on their oars as another year begins saying 2022 can be much better than 2021 for more remarkable progress and achievements.

Ukwuoma, who gave the charge on Monday in his new year message to the staff of the agency said the agency have raised the bar and it cannot afford to lower the standards.

According to him, all the accomplishments of 2021 were made possible by the cooperation, support and dedication of members of staff to the collective aspirations of the Agency saying “you have all demonstrated that together we can achieve a lot and I say a big thank you to all.”

He said, “let us, through renewed dedication, show that 2021 was not a fluke. 2022 can be much better! It’s time to go again. We can do it. And we will do it by God’s grace.

While speaking on what the agency have been able to do in the just concluded year 2021, the NACETEM boss said, “2021 was without doubt a remarkable year for NACETEM in terms of growth and impacts within and outside the science, technology and innovation community! We left indelible footprints in the sand of time through our invaluable contributions to human capacity building, policy research, policy advisory services, databank management, etc in the area of science, technology and innovation management. We can proudly say that we did not just count days in 2021; we made the days in the year count through our numerous programmes and activities.

“Specifically, we did not allow the disruption occasioned by the unabated COVID-19 pandemic to set us back. Rather, we innovatively deployed technologies to beat the menace and reached out to many via zoom and other innovations. NACETEM trained over 1000 participants during its Science Diplomacy workshop and established Science Diplomacy Network to give meaning to the outcomes of the workshop. The Agency also attracted participants in their thousands to its National Workshop on Government-Industry-Academia Linkages to create a working and workable synergy among the various actors of the National Innovation System to achieve sustainable development. All these were achieved using webinars to demonstrate that we practise what we preach.

“As soon as normalcy set in and we could gather people physically, the Agency, through its zonal offices, organised series of programmes ranging from Technology Management Forum in PortHarcourt, National Workshop on Technical and Vocational Education in Ibadan and Enugu to the National Workshop on Science, Technology and Innovation-A Tool for Rapid Socio-economic Development in Nigeria at Abuja. Indeed, we made our presence felt in almost all the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria in 2021.

“We completed some of our policy research projects and initiated many more. The reports of some of the completed projects have been published and are already in the public domain. The Agency keeps taking away guesswork from governance via policy research projects on issues of national interests in science, technology and innovation management.

“As an Agency with international recognition and acclaim, our staff, particularly the researchers, participated in diverse conferences across the globe. Besides the conferences, their academic works were published in highly rated national and international journals. This is a testament of the quality of staff the Agency is blessed with! It needs to be stressed that NACETEM further made its presence felt in the international arena with its active participation in the Global Sustainable Technology and Innovation Community (G-STIC) conference in Dubai, where it showcased the immense opportunities in circular economy in Nigeria to the world.

“The various commendable feats of the Agency made it more relevant within the Federal Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (FMSTI) in 2021 as the leadership of NACETEM was actively involved in many activities of the Ministry heading one committee or the other.

“Notably, the Review of the 2012 STI POLICY which NACETEM anchored has been completed and submitted to the Hon. Ministers for study and comments/directives for further actions. The Agency’s DG was delegated by the Hon. Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation to represent him at different events across the country. This is a mark of his confidence in the capabilities of the Agency’s leadership.

“The Agency was invited and participated in the Council Meetings of the Ministries of Transportation and Communications and Digital Economy where we presented MEMOS. This shows that activities of NACETEM have been recognised by other Ministries.

“It needs to be placed on record that the Agency now has an 11-man Governing Board. The Governing Board was constituted towards the end of 2021 to further deepen and enhance how the Agency is administered for optimal growth and productivity. It is hoped that the constitution of the Board will speed up the realisation of the Agency’s new aspirations and goals.”