The National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI) was established in 1992 by the federal government with specific mandates in the areas of capital goods, research, production and reverse engineering. ABDULLAHI M. GULLOMA in this piece examines how far it has gone in achieving the set objectives.
NASENI, by its mandate and scope of operation, is the country’s only agency established to conduct development works in the areas of manufacturing.
It’s capable of coordinating the proliferation of technologies developed either within or outside of its centres, including patents obtained. Technologies developed in the areas of spares, components and systems engineering are to be transferred to entrepreneurs for the production of goods and services.
Thus, the country can have the benefit of a rapid technological development by strengthening NASENI since the mission of NASENI is to establish and nurture appropriate and dynamic science and engineering infrastructure base for achieving locally based and sustained industrialisation through the development of relevant processes, capital goods and equipment necessary for job creation, national economic well-being and progress.
Initiatives
In a bid to fulfill its mandate, NASENI established various development institutes in order to standardise made in Nigerian products and make them globally competitive. In this light, therefore, people from the six geo-political zones of the country will receive training in modern farming techniques.
The programme is part of President Muhammadu Buhari’s directive to NASENI to introduce modern techniques in farming with 100 youths from each of the six geo-political zones of the country as participants.
At the occasion of the launch of the empowerment training programme in Kebbi state, the chief executive of NASENI, Prof. Haruna Sani, said the programme was introduced to aid agriculture and the economic diversification plan of the country.“The exercise was a mission accomplished and a sign of the seriousness of the administration to empower the youths and also to lift Nigeria’s agriculture away from mere subsistence,” he said.
Haruna stressed the importance of agriculture to nations’ development, saying that the developed countries initially prioritised agriculture using modern techniques, science and innovations to become industrialised.
The chairman of the Occasion, the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami, said the President is determined to tackle the high rate of youth unemployment, poverty and especially food insecurity and also industrially transform the country.
The target of 100 youths per geo-political zone of the country, he said, is intended to take the youths off the streets, address youth restiveness and increase food security through the introduction of modern farming practices to attract young people.
“Seventy percent of Nigerian youths and workforce live in the rural areas and, therefore, targeting them with new farm implements and techniques by NASENI is like putting a round peg in a round hole,” the minister said.
Of course, the aim of this programme is none other than the need to make farming in the country an all-year activity, not seasonal anymore, and increase yields.
Nigeria, China partnership
Again, it is line with the industrialisation and economic diversification agenda of the federal government that NASENI, in partnership with the China Great Wall Industry Corporation (CGWIC) will, in September this year, carry out the ground-breaking and foundation laying ceremony for the establishment of a first class transformer production plant in Nigeria. If established, the plant will be the first of its kind in Nigeria and second in Africa.
The management of the Chinese team has met with the Executive Vice Chairman of NASENI to finalise arrangements for the September 2022 ceremony, directed by President Muhammadu Buhari, who doubles as the Chairman of the Governing Board of NASENI.
The leader of the Chinese delegation and chairman, Liaoning Huaye Group Development Limited, Anshan, Ma Liming, said during the working visit to NASENI that Nigeria and China had a long lasting relationship which led to the signing of the agreement on building of the first transformer manufacturing plant in the country.
He said the partnership also resulted in the training of 60 NASENI engineers on the transformer production line and high voltage testing laboratory plant.
There is no doubt that this development comes at the apt moment for no nation can develop without being independent as far as the issues of its power generation and supply are concerned. Thankfully, the upcoming programme will lead to the establishment, also, of a solar cell manufacturing plant in Nigeria aimed at popularising renewable energy in the country.
Hopefully, NASENI and China would continue to work together to ensure the attainment of the realisation of the power needs of the country without which Nigeria cannot industrialise.
Thankfully, too, more than 50% of the 15% counterpart fund to be paid by the federal government on the establishment of a transformer plant in Nigeria has been paid and the ground-breaking and foundation laying ceremony of the project will be done by the President.
No doubt, for any nation to offer permanent solutions to the issue of power supply, it must have its own high voltage testing laboratory, which is what this project is also expected to achieve for Nigeria and when the plant effectively takes-off, it will be run by trained Nigerian engineers and scientists.
Indeed, NASENI is driving the project in line with its mandate to provide capital goods and equipment, including machinery, to offer a solid foundation for the industrial development of the country.
NASENI boss’ assurances
Little or no wonder, Prof. Haruna said: “We are in this for the purpose of ensuring that Nigeria becomes one of the countries in the world with steady power supply which is an essential ingredient for industrialisation.”
The executive vice-chairman of NASENI said due to the importance which the agency placed on solar energy, 98 NASENI engineers will be trained on solar cell modular production in China with local engineers expected to go to the Asian country in September to commence training.
Undoubtedly, the benefits of having a local solar cell manufacturing plant in the country are enormous. Of course, getting electricity from multiple sources is essential for a populous country like Nigeria and if the country can have the solar cell production plant on its shores, have steady light and even transmit to other African countries, all the merrier.
MoU
Boosted by the performance of NASENI and the imperative for infrastructure development, as part of the economic diversification initiatives of the Buhari-led administration, the federal government and the Czech Republic launched a Call for Public Proposals on Delta-2 Programme worth $16.2 million co-funding research and development projects.
The intended programme to be birthed by the MoU, known as the Delta-2 Project, is to be assessed by the committee with inputs from Nigerian companies. Hopefully, this initiative will lead to building and expansion of infrastructure, manufacturing programmes and innovations in Nigeria and, ultimately, what will come to be known as the “Made-in-Nigeria” technologies and products.
According to the chairman of the Presidential Implementation Committee of Transfer of Technology between Nigeria and Czech Republic (PICTT), Dr. Mohammed Dahiru, more than 200 Nigerian companies have applied to take part in the Delta-2 project.
The Delta-2 programme is the cooperation model of the Technology Agency of Czech Republic, TA CR, running from 2020-2025, through which the TA CR sponsors applied research and innovation of manufacturing companies and innovative institutions, with Nigeria becoming one of the new beneficiaries of the programme.
Speaking at the programme launch, the NASENI boss said the Call for Public Proposal for the Delta-2 programme is one of the projects to be implemented under the bilateral agreement between the two countries.
According to him, the priority areas of the MoU which include biotechnology and pharmaceutical research, agriculture and food technology, mining industrial development, among others, were unable to take-off earlier due to bureaucracy until the Presidential Implementation Committee (PICTT) on Technology Transfer/Information Exchange between Nigeria and Czech Republic was inaugurated by President Muhammed Buhari in November 2020.
He said: “The PICTT would be sourcing technologies from the Czech Republic’s manufacturing companies; tertiary; research; and development institutions. The sum of CZK 250 million (250 million Czech Koruna, approximately US$10.5 million) has been a allocated as research fund by the government of the Czech Republic, through the TA CR and will be supplemented by NASENI on behalf of the Federal Government of Nigeria to the sum of 2,000,000,000 or US5.7 million.”
Already, 284 public proposals for Delta-2 programme have been submitted for screening. It is, therefore, hoped that the committee members would ensure that the important projects leading to Made-in-Nigeria technologies and products are selected from the companies to transform the country and to kick-start the country’s industrial revolution.
According to the PIC’s terms of reference, the committee is expected to work collaboratively with relevant stakeholders and partners to ignite a process of fostering growth and expansion of infrastructure, manufacturing and innovation in Nigeria.
Of course, the roles the government is expected to play in the bid to industrialise Nigeria cannot be underestimated. After all, Dr. Osita Ogbu, the erstwhile economic adviser to ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo, once said, “There exists incontrovertible evidence that development is not driven by savings but by inventiveness, innovation and ideas generated through science and technology and the principal anchor and leader of this process must be the government.”
This adage fitted well with the recent active roles being played by the government and, in particular, President Buhari, who gives crucial directives to NASENI regarding his administration’s promise of providing millions of jobs to Nigerians, especially the youth, and developing the country.
New dawn
Thus, with the current goings on in NASENI, it can be said that, indeed a new dawn has emerged to redesign Nigeria’s economic transformation pathway and strategies for the nation’s economic development while science, engineering, technology and innovation sector provides the new direction.
