NACETEM Harps On Importance Of Documentation Of Indigenous Technologies To Address SDGs

In a bid to address sustainable development goals, there was the need to document Indigenous Technologies.

However, all concerned authorities should as a matter of importance start interacting with custodians of Indigenous Technologies and ensure the knowledge is documented for today and for posterity.

These were the submissions of the Stakeholders at the sensitisation workshop on ‘survey and development of data on indigenous technologies that address sustainable development goals in Nigeria’, organised by the National Centre for Technology Management (NACETEM), held in Nigeria Institute of Social and Economic Research (NISER) in Ibadan.

The Director-General, National Centre for Technology Management (NACETEM) , Okechukwu Ukwuoma Prof. Ukwuoma while speaking emphasized the Importance of data collection on indigenous technologies to know the knowledge available to the people locally.

He added that such knowledge could be maximized to achieve sustainable development in Nigeria and the global scene.

According to him, this is an era when knowledge has become the currency of the world, therefore, it is expected of Nigerians to think globally and act locally.

He said: “To act locally, recourse must be made to indigenous knowledge which is the unique knowledge confined to a particular culture or society. This knowledge is generated and transmitted by communities, over time, in an effort to cope with their own socio-economic environments.

“As a people we cannot afford to lose sight of knowledge that is indigenous to us so as to remain relevant in the scheme of things globally. In this regard, we have to come up with a systematic process of observing local conditions, experimenting with solutions and readapting previously identified solutions to environmental, socio-economic and technological situations.

“The only way to do this is to begin to interact with custodians of such knowledge and ensure the knowledge is documented for today and for posterity.

By so doing, we know what is available to us and how best such can be deployed for achieving Sustainable Development Goals such as no poverty, zero hunger, good health and well-being, quality education, gender equality, clean water and sanitation, affordable and clean energy, decent work and economic growth, industry, innovation and infrastructure, reduced inequality among others.”

He said Nigeria is blessed with the knowledge that can make it compete favourably well on the global stage, but it has to be identified and well utilised.

“We might have been limited as a nation in the past because of hoarding such knowledge. It’s time for us to open up and globalise the local knowledge available to us, as no nation flourishes in isolation. I therefore encourage us to freely share knowledge that will help us as a nation to achieve the SDGs in Nigeria using indigenous technologies.

“It is for this reason we have an array of indigenous knowledge practitioners and custodians such as blacksmiths, goldsmiths, agro-processing machine fabricators, drum makers, etc. gathered here today.”

NACETEM Assistant Chief Research Officer, Dr. Tosin Ilevbare stated that although Nigeria has much indigenous knowledge, their relevance to the national socio-economic development trajectory has not been visibly established.

“Thus, indigenous knowledge needs to be validated, exploited and integrated into appropriate technologies to sustainably address challenges Nigeria is facing.

“Globally, indigenous knowledge offers new models for development that are both ecologically and socially sound and create development solutions that are culturally acceptable to the society.

“Nigeria has diverse Indigenous Knowledge Systems which have been transferred over a long period of time and are still in use despite the advent of modern knowledge systems.”