Group Executive Director of Dangote Group, Mr. Mansur Ahmed has stated that collaboration between the government, academia and industry practitioner was needed to set Nigeria on the path of industrial development.
According to a news report by NAN, this statement was made by Mr. Ahmed, during a study tour of the Research and Development Steering Committee of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND) to the Dangote Refinery, Petrochemicals and Fertiliser projects in Ibeju Lekki, Lagos.
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At the tour led by the Executive Secretary of TETFUND, Prof. Suleiman Bogoro, Mr Ahmed disclosed that the Dangote Group believes that there needs to be a synergy between the researchers in the universities and the industries, like what is found in advanced economies.
According to him, Dangote Group will continue to partner with research institutions for the advancement of indigenous technology and national development, as a collaboration between the government, academia and industry was needed to set Nigeria on the path of industrial development.
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Dangote Group Executive Director disclosed that the collaboration is to ensure that Nigerian graduates are equipped with the set skills to immediately fit into the industry upon employment, instead of wasting more years in training them.
What they are saying
Group Executive Director of Dangote Group, Mr. Mansur Ahmed at the study tour said:
”The Dangote Group believes that there needs to be a synergy between the researchers in the universities and the industries, like what is found in advanced economies.
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“The industry and the academia need to work together to identify issues and problems that are looking for solutions and the researchers will now come back with their findings and proposed solutions.
” If the solution meets the expectations of the industry, you will get the two working together to find homegrown solutions to our problems.
“I think the idea initiated now by TETFUND is a welcome development and we should make sure that whatever research that is going on in our universities is research that is useful and can be practicalised in our industries. This will expand the scope of indigenous technology.”
Speaking on how the study tour is key in bridging the gap between the industry and the academia, Prof. Suleiman Bogoro, said:
“This committee has 13 sub-committees and today four of them are here on this visit, we have the Engineering, Bio-resource and Environment, Energy as well as Petroleum, Mining and Extraction sub-committees.”
“We couldn’t have started this tour better than visiting Dangote Group which is the most innovative indigenous company. We believe that through researches and collaboration with the industry, we will be able to apply science and technology to improve our country.”
As the country seeks to industrialize, it would need to drastically beef up its abysmally low level of local R&D activities. It might be time to consider allowing companies to channel their Education Fund deductions into indigenous research in a tertiary institution of their choice, instead of passing it on to the ETF, such an arrangement would encourage the private sector to channel money into R&D effort that they can monitor and hold the universities accountable for.
Given that Nigeria does not presently feature in the global top 70 countries in R&D expenditure, we would need to do a critical re-assessment of the ETF arrangement, to see how it can be tinkered with to promote indigenous research and innovation.