For Nigerian Economy’s Growth Research And Development Should Be Given Adequate Priority – NMDC DG
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The Director General and the Chief Executive of the National Metallurgical Development Center(NMDC), Engr. Linus Asuquo has said that Nigeria cannot adequately diversify its economy without meaningful research and development.
Engr. Asuquo who made this disclosure to journalists in Abuja noted that a lot of research have to be done for Nigeria to go forward.
“In my span of six to eight years, I have been able to traveled to more than fifty six countries in the world and I have seen that research and development is capital intensive.
“The whole world is putting attention in research and development and if we have to go forward in this country, if we have to develop, if we want to adequately diversify our economy, our priority should be on research and development”.
He also took time to give an insight and overview of some of the successes recorded since assumed office as the Director General of the National Metallurgical Development Center.
On what he met on ground, he said:
“When I was appointed in July 2018, and at assumption, I saw the whole place like an abandoned place, reports of theft here and there, it was a moribund in term of facilities, in term of the infrastructure, so it was a challenge for me in terms of infrastructural development, in terms of capacity building, infrastructural capacity building, and of course institutional building.”
“There was a need to renovate some of the buildings to give a conducive ambient for research and development and that’s of purpose of the center.
On some of the successes so far, Engr. Linus maintained that adequate security was put in place to safeguard the facilities, restructure of the management for effective and efficient management of the place, a road map for the center was designed, power was also put in place for effective research purposes, state of the art equipment was also procured to do meaningful research and of course training and retraining of the staff on capacity building.
He however stressed the need for adequate funding which he said it’s one of the biggest problem. Adding that if the center is given adequate funding and attention is being paid to research and development given its is priority, there’s going to be a massive development in the country in line with the diversification agenda of the Federal Government on the nation’s economy.
