Overcoming The Challenges To Nigerian Research And Development, By Rahma Oladosu
Research and development are critical to the development of any nation as the former facilitates the latter.
The Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) has the mandate to provide support for research and development in institutions in the country and in the light of it’s usual intervention in the various sectors, it recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology to boost research in the country so as to promote national development.
While making this pact, the Executive Secretary of TETFund, Prof. Elias Sulaiman Bogoro, disclosed that the Federal Government released N5 billion last year to the agency to fund research.
He further expressed hope that the grant will be increased to further enable it to intensify the funding of research activities.
According to him, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) is the nerve center for developed nations and for Nigeria to achieve development, STEM subjects must be embraced by students and researchers.
In addition to that, the Minister of Science and Technology, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, also said that the pact is part of efforts to deepen a knowledge and innovation- driven economy, adding that research agencies will greatly benefit from this development.
Generally, the importance of research in Nigeria cannot be over emphasized as its importance ranges from introducing new ideas, helping with better discernment, getting the best information, narrowing one’s scope, expanding knowledge base, problem solving and building one’s credibility.
However, there is currently no significant research and development activity in the country and most of the researches that should have brought about great developments in the educational sector and in the nation as a whole have not been able to fully navigate because of many challenges of which funding is on the top list and it makes this particular operation in the country sub-optimal.
To meet these challenges, there is the need for a drastic and far-reaching reform in education policies and programmes of the country. This is because investment in education brings a greater increase in human capital or human-resource.
TETFund, is the intervention agency whose main source of income for funding is the two percent education tax paid from the assessable profit of companies registered in Nigeria. It is managed by an eleven-member Board of Trustees with members drawn from the six geo-political zones of the country as well as representatives of the Federal Ministry of Education, Federal Ministry of Finance and the Federal Inland Revenue Services and The Federal Ministry of Science & Technology. The mission of the latter is to facilitate the development and deployment of science and technology apparatus to enhance the pace of socio-economic development of the country through appropriate technological inputs.
In order to overcome the challenges of research and development in Nigeria therefore, I believe this collaboration between TETFund and the Ministry will cement synergy between research agencies and academic institutions to the overall benefit of Nigeria.
Rahma Olamide Oladosu is a Staff Writer with the Economic Confidential
