The Tertiary Education Trust Fund TETFund has revealed that the agency spent over N23 billion on funding research across the country.
This was disclosed by the Assistant Director, Research and Development (R&D) of TETFund, Dr Hadiza Ismail, at a validation workshop on “Strengthening Research and Innovation Funding Agencies in West Africa, in Abuja on Monday.
Hadiza, who represented the Director of TETFund’s R&D at the event, said the agency was fully committed to the establishment of a Science Granting Council in Nigeria.
According to her, the Fund has been supporting research financially through the National Research Fund and will ensure that research outputs are linked to industry to bring about the desired development.
“So far, the Fund has spent over N23 billion on about 912 research projects that have been sponsored.
“But that also gives us an insight into the need for this workshop and what we are actually talking about.
“Despite the fact that we have given grants to over 900 projects, we want to see how we can link these research projects to industry and get viable outcomes at the end of the day to help Nigeria move forward,” she said.
On his part, Executive Director, African Technology Policy Studies, ATPS, Network, Professor Nicholas Ozor, said the workshop was aimed at giving momentum to a project designed to strengthen national research councils in six West African countries.
He, however, expressed concerns about the non-existence of a national research and innovation funding agency in Nigeria, saying the absence has denied the country the ability to attract foreign grants for research.
Also speaking, the President of the African University of Science and Technology, AUST, Abuja, Professor Peter Onwualu, emphasized the importance of innovation in bringing about development in Nigeria.
“We know that in this country, we need the results of science and technology, which usually translate into innovation.
“Innovation that can produce goods and services to make sure our economy runs well, but we have to have a good institutional framework for doing research in Nigeria, and that is all this project is all about.
“We believe the outcome of this workshop will make Nigeria have a functional science granting council that can finance and fund research in all sectors of the economy; universities, polytechnics, research institutes, private sector organizations, SMEs, and even the informal sector”.
