Mr Adebayo Shittu, Minister of Communications on Wednesday said that Information and Communications Technology was the critical driver of the knowledge-based economy of our time.
Shittu made the remark during the foundation-laying ceremony of the Nigeria Computer Society (NCS’s) Information Technology Innovation Centre, in Lagos.
“The reality of global relevance was now impacting unavoidably on our collective national psyche as the ever-dwindling oil price, and by extension, dwindling national revenue generation persists,’’ he said.
Shittu said that the obvious solution was to diversify the production base of our national economy, noting that this could be urgently done through the workforce, both technologically and digitally.
He said that with the foundation laying ceremony, the NCS was sending a message to announce its strong, robust system and its compliance to President Muhammadu Buhari’s change agenda.
Congratulating the NCS President, the minister hoped that the centre would generate several technological and digital innovations that would turn around the economy for good.
He noted with great concern the gap between research, outputs from the universities and the level of industrial commercialization accorded them, believing that the new centre would help to bridge the gap.
In his contribution, Prof. Adesola Aderounmu, President, Nigeria Computer Society (NCS), said that the Information Technology Innovation Centre was designed to focus on addressing the weak university/industry linkage.
Aderounmu noted that a recent World Bank appraisal concluded that the weak university/industry linkage in Nigeria was the greatest impediment to the development of a knowledge-based economy.
He recommended the prioritization of measures to develop structures and systems for strengthening Higher Educational Institutions/Industry linkage through the establishment of at least six university-based knowledge parks/technology innovation centres.
“The IT innovation centre is designed to accelerate the successful development of entrepreneurial companies through an array of business support resources,’’ he said.
Aderounmu decried the existence of 27 technology incubation/innovation centres in the country, which he said were inadequate and that they cannot also provide employment for youths.
The NCS president said that the centres did not focus on incubation ideas coming out of the nation’s universities, precisely taking ideas from the laboratory to the market place, which allows for their commercialisation.
