The Minister of Science and Technology, Dr Ogbonnaya Onu, has stressed the need for increased investment in science, technology and innovation for Africa’s economic development and social progress.
The minister made the call on Monday when Lawson Zankli, the Country Operations Manager of African Development Bank group, visited him in his office in Abuja.
Onu, who identified science, technology and innovation as the bedrock of any developed nation, expressed worry that Africa had not utilised the potential in the sector to transform its enormous resources.
He, therefore, called for concerted efforts in the fight against poverty and disease on the continent through adoption of emerging technologies and innovations.
He said: “We have recorded a lot of development and improvements in some African countries but generally, we feel very disturbed that if
you want to show the face of hunger, poverty and disease, it is the African face.
“As Africans, we are very disturbed about this and we do not want this to continue.
“We believe that this will change and all of us must work hard to ensure that we don’t allow this to continue.”
The minister also said that Africa could leverage on science and technology to not only to create jobs, but stem the movement of youths to developed continents in search of better opportunities.
He added: “We are aware of the problems Africans pass through in their effort to move away from the continent in search of better life and at times, in search of good job opportunities.
“We have seen how many young Africans die while trying to cross the Mediterranean; this is very disturbing.
“We are determined as Africans to make sure we take our destiny in our own hands and build a new future for Africa.
“A continent that will be more peaceful, more developed and above all, that will be able to utilise the enormous resources that God has endowed us with.
“There is no part of the world that has developed without using resources from Africa, so why can’t Africans use the same resources that other people from other continents come to use to develop Africa?”
Onu pointed out that successful implementation of Federal Government’s Economic Recovery and Growth Plan 2017 to 2020 would be facilitated by recognising science, technology and innovation as the centre of all economic activities.
He said: “Our interest is to make sure that we provide job opportunities for Nigerians and Africans and also defeat extreme poverty and the best way to achieve this is to ensure that you can give skills to people.”
Zankli said that the visit was part of consultations in Nigeria toward developing a document that would guide the interventions of ADB Group in Nigeria from 2020 to 2024.
He said that the group would be looking at the previous strategy it had, the achievements it made during the implementation of the strategy, as well as lessons that could be drawn from the implementation and how to build in the lessons to develop a new strategy.
He said: “Nigeria’s mid-term plan is the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan, so our strategy is supposed to help the government to achieve the objectives of the government’s own strategy.
“We will be looking at the ERGP and eventually the successor plan and identify areas that are also in line with our own priority objectives.
“We will also select focus areas in the period 2020 to 2024.”