The inability of Nigerian technology companies to locally produce indigenous technology is costing the nation to lose around N500 billion (US$3 billion) every year, according to Umar Bindir, Director General of Nigeria’s National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP).
Bindir was speaking at a workshop held to discuss the validation of the implementation framework for the revised science, technology and innovation policy.
He said every year, owing to the lack of capacity of Nigerian manufacturers to locally produce essential technologies, billions of dollars are spent on procuring such technologies from foreign countries.
One area of the Nigerian economy that is heavily reliant on foreign nations for all of its technologies is information and communication technology (ICT). It is also reliant in the banking sector, which is getting its technologies from foreign manufactures instead of sourcing for them locally.
Bindir said it may now become very difficult for Nigeria to achieve its goal of being among the top 20 biggest economies in the world by the year 2020.
