Chief Uche Nnaji, the Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology, on Thursday promised to ensure increased allocation to the Federal Institute of Industrial Research, Oshodi (FIIRO) in Lagos.
Nnaji, who gave the promise while taking a tour of the institute’s facility, said that the increased allocation was to be used for more researches.
The minister expressed amazement at the amount of uncommercialised research products that had been done by researchers at the institute.
He said: “It’s time the research work done by this institute and others begin to see the light of day.
“We are going to make efforts to commercialise these researches.
“From what I have seen today, this institute has what it takes to embark on feeding the nation and provide job opportunities for our unemployed youths.
“Innovation, science and technology are at the forefront of economic development. There are no two ways about it.
“That is why I keep advocating that more money be allocated to places like FIIRO, so that their research efforts can see the light of the day.
“FIIRO has been one of the places and institutes that remain indelible in my mind because of accomplishments over the years.”
The minister said, after he saw what the institute had been able to produce displayed at the exhibition dome, that he was pleasantly surprised.
He commended the efforts of the institute and said that their achievements aligned with President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Mandate.
“I can tell you that I am amazed and I am so happy because what we are seeing here today is in line with our president’s renewed hope agenda.
“We must produce, get people employed and also commercialise the researches we have.
“We should look into FIIRO and many of these other agencies under my watch before going outside to import all those other machines.
“Many of these imported machines, therefore, do not last. But FIIRO is the place to come,” Nnaji said.
He urged investors to visit the institute to see how they could collaborate in commercialising most of its research products.
Also speaking, Dr. Jummia Tutuwa, Director-General, FIIRO, said that the institute would give its full support to the minister in commercialisation of some of its research products.
She said that the institute had developed over 250 technologies that had yet to be recognised.
“First of all, I want to thank God Almighty for making it possible for the minister to come. And he has seen all that we have been doing.
“This development shows that we do not do anything theoretically only, we are here to practicalise it.
“I am going to support my honorable minister in terms of commercialisation, because FIIRO has developed 250 technologies and they are all lying down here, waiting to be commercialised,” she said.
Tutuwa said that the institute would intensify its efforts at training and investing, so as to be aligned with the Federal Government’s Transformation Agenda.
“We will also increase our research in food processes, because you will all agree with me that prices of food in the market is very high.
“So, our aim will be to research into how to bring down prices of food in the market, maybe by making cheaper processing alternatives available as an example,” the FIIRO director-general said.