Jummai Adamu, the director-general of the Federal Institute of Industrial Research in Oshodi (FIIRO), has emphasized the urgent need for Nigeria to diversify its economy away from oil, claiming that the country’s over reliance on it is detrimental to the nation.
Adamu made this statement during the agency’s day at the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology’s ongoing Science, Technology and Innovation Expo 2023.
She expressed sadness that Nigeria’s mono-economy dependency on oil and gas—which he claimed were non-renewable—had prevented the nation from making genuine progress that would have earned it respect among other nations.
She added that Nigeria cannot play to the crowd and that diversification is the only practical strategy for surviving the current climate of economic unpredictability at the global level.
She reiterated: “As you may be aware, one of the key components that aid economic diversification is technology transfer, which is the innovation capabilities of any organisation that wants to thrive technologically. Increase in economic diversification will expose us to opportunities to utilise our technological prowess and become more capable to generate new technological solutions due to cross-fertilisation of ideas among different knowledge areas of diversification, thus, producing positive effects on our innovation performance.”
Given the importance of diversification, the FIIRO DG stated that the organization was working to ensure that it contributed its fair share to the government’s innovation-driven diversification goal.
“FIIRO has participated significantly in supporting the full diversification of our economy through our research breakthroughs. In order to support this drive, we have conducted cutting edge research on some raw materials readily available in Nigeria, leading to the development of not less than 250 technologies, resulting in the creation of profitable enterprises which invariably has led to generation of jobs through its multiplier effects, thereby reducing poverty and earning of foreign exchange.”
“We also focused on R&D activities that are market-driven, demand-oriented and can move Nigeria from import dependent to sustainable self-reliant and production for exports. Some of our notable achievements”
