Federal Government has presented cheques worth
N24 million to 16 beneficiaries of the 2013 Presidential Standing Committee on
Inventions and Innovations (PSCII) grant, reports ITRealms.
The cheque presentation to beneficiaries, ITRealms gathered was a
continuation of nine years support by the Presidential Standing Committee on
Invention and Innovation.
Presenting the cheques, the Supervising
Minister of Science and Technology Ministry, Mrs. Omobola Johnson while
congratulating the beneficiaries on their achievements, described innovation as
the lifeblood of any business, any country regardless of social, demographic or
economic standing.
She encouraged them to apply the grant towards
the next step to their ultimate goal, which is patenting and writing a business
plan.
‘‘While the grants that are given to you today
are for cry from what you require to take your innovation forward to the next
stage which is commercialization and industrialization, I want to encourage you
to apply this grant towards that potentially small but important next step to
this ultimate goal-patenting, writing a business plan to present to institute
that can make substantial funds available to you, making an application to one
of our many Technology Incubation Centres in different parts of the country’s
capacity building,’’ she said.
‘‘This is how businesses are created and how
they thrive and grow. From one innovation or invention from one bright young
mind, a viable business is born, jobs are created, people are employed and
wealth for nation and for individuals is created.
‘‘Let me congratulate each and everyone of you
on this achievement. By receiving this grant, you have in a sense received both
an endorsement and a validation of all your efforts. We look forward to receiving
about your transition from an innovation to a business.
‘‘For those of you whose innovations and
inventions are still in the preliminary or middle stage, we urge you to put in
additional effort towards completion on order to provide opportunities to other
Nigerians to commercialize and reap the desired benefits from your products,’’
said the Minister.
According to her, vigorous efforts are ongoing
to improve the Federal Government’s funding of the PSCII, but added that collaborations
with relevant stakeholders such as Education Trust Fund, Petroleum Technology
Development Fund, National Universities Commission, National Board for
Technical Education, Raw Material Research and Development Council and the
National Planning Commission, are underway to facilitate the achievement of the
ultimate goal of the PSCII Programme, which is to provide a solid foundation
for a technological break-through in Nigeria.
Earlier in her welcome address, the Permanent
Secretary in the Ministry, Mrs. Rabi Jimetta said right from creation, man has
always searched for better ways of doing things in order to ease and
improve his standard of living and socio-economic well-being by using things
that are available at his disposal.
According to her, the desire to encourage
Nigerians, particularly those in the informal sector of the economy that have
outstanding indigenous technologies was based on their inventions that could
impact positively on Nigerians and the economy.
She listed some of the objectives of the
scheme as encouraging invention and innovation in technology; to examine ay
research claims and assess what can be done to take such claims to prototype
and commercial level and to suggest how funds could be sourced to finance the
various stages of development from inception to prototype and
commercialization.
On his part, the Secretary, PSCII and
Director of Technology Acquisition and Assessment, Dr. Adeyemi Talabi commended
the inventors for their relentless ingenuity, tenacity and commitment to
industrializing the country through various researches in science and
technology.
He urged them to take advantage of the
research outcome to advance the country technologically, through
commercialization drive, wealth creation and employment generation.
Speaking on behalf of other beneficiaries, Mr.
Momodu Shaka, who invented an auto fire extinguisher expressed gratitude to
federal government and promised to use the fund to translate their inventions
into commercial scale.
The 16 beneficiaries had gone through a
careful and rigorous screening and selection process that included 399
applicants (innovators and inventors).
So far, 117 innovators and inventors across
the six geo-political zones of the country have received grants ranging from
N250,000 to N3 million from this initiative, in addition to the sixteen
innovators/inventors that benefited from the 2013 edition of the PSCII grant,
that scaled through the operational guidance of the PSCII through the selection
process.
Most of the inventions were on automobile,
health research, climate change, power sector, agro business among others.
The scheme was established
by the Federal Government in October, 2005 to encourage and promote inventions
and innovations in Science and Technology from the informal sector of the
economy, while also stimulating the interest of Nigerians to use Science,
Technology and Innovation tools for national development.
Kingsley Opurum
ITREALMS Online ... delivering news for ICT4D
Pix: Mrs. Johnson, supervising Minister, Science & Tech
