The National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure has decried the low patronage of Nigerians in locally-made products.

Speaking during a stakeholders’ meeting organised by the agency in Akure, Ondo State, the Deputy Director of Engineering at NASENI, Mr Joseph Alasoluyi, said Nigerians preferred buying foreign goods to locally made ones.

Alasoluyi said to encourage patronage for Nigerian-made products, the agency had trained over 50 participants in the production of handmade products.

He said NASENI, which was set up to promote science, technology, and engineering as a foundation for Nigeria’s development, currently operates 12 institutes nationwide to achieve its objectives.

He said President Bola Tinubu aimed for high production and patronage of “our local products, thereby creating employment opportunities for many.”

He said, “The idea of this programme is to interface to ensure we produce products using our indigenous technology.

“This is what NASENI is out for, to ensure that homegrown technologies are encouraged.

“We are out there to ensure we integrate efforts to ensure that local technology is used to develop products within our resources.

“The NASENI’s ‘3 Cs’ – Creation, Collaboration, and Commercialisation – define NASENI’s strategic mandate: creating innovations through research, collaborating with partners to develop and refine products, and commercialising these solutions to benefit the economy.”

The Deputy Vice Chancellor of the Federal University of Technology, Akure, Prof Samuel Oluyamo, blamed the Federal Government for the inadequate funding of research in universities.

He noted that many research outputs were left halfway due to a lack of funding and weak linkages between research institutions and industry.

Oluyamo also queried the Federal Government’s commitment to funding research and development, saying many academic innovations remained on the shelf, due to a lack of support for commercialisation and poor infrastructure.

“The government is not funding research in the universities enough. Thank God for TETFund, which is trying in this regime.

“The major interest in beefing up research in universities and research institutions is really not there,” he said.


https://punchng.com/fg-decries-low-patronage-of-made-in-nigeria-products/