Buhari Approves Change Of Ministry’s Name

The Ministry of Science and Technology has been changed to the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation.

Confirming the development in a statement released on Friday, Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, Dr Ogbonnaya Onu, said President Muhammadu Buhari-led government approved the change of name to bring about a shift in research and development that is industry and services’ demand-driven.

He said: “This development will help us bring about a shift in Research and Development (R&D) that is industry and services’ demand-driven, resulting in rapid commercialization and ultimately improved global competitiveness ranking of Nigeria.”

Onu expressed hope of the country achieving a significant level of poverty alleviation through irreversible indigenous industrialization, an adequate platform for higher productivity, improvement in value-added components of the economy and job creation.

These according to him would also be a major push to realise the objective of Buhari’s administration of lifting 100million Nigerians out of poverty within 10 years.

It was further learnt that the new name will be gazetted to enable legal and policy frameworks as a backup for institutional and organisational arrangements, effective coordination of the National Science and Innovation in the country.

He added; ”When we succeed in achieving this, it will lead us to R &D breakthroughs and inventions that are commercialised. With the right policy and legal framework to protect intellectual property rights, we can effectively promote commercialization in all activity sectors in the value chain for supply of raw materials, goods and services.”