ABUJA - Industrialists in the country have been urged to utilise local technology, to ensure the achievement of Vision 2020 and the MDGs.
Prof. Peter Onwualu, Director-General of Raw Material Research and Development Council (RMRDC), made the call in Abuja, in an interview with newsmen.
“There is always doubt by the industrialists that what is coming out of the research from research institutions is not yet ready for the market,” Onwualu.
He said that it was usually very difficult to convince an entrepreneur or an industrialist to invest in the new area, as he would not believe it would work.
“Most industrialists want a situation where if we want to establish factory, he will prefer going to India or China to import machine that he knows is already working,” he added.
He said industrialists would want perfect machines that would operate 99 percent efficiency and those that should look good in terms of economics.
He said all the Council’s projects were refocused, to address government programmes such as vision 2020, MDGs and 7-point agenda.
The Director-General said for Nigeria to become an industrialised country, it should produce quality wares for exports, to compete favourably worldwide.
“In this day of globalisation, if you have nothing on the table, you will be importing everything,” he said.
He said for Nigeria to become a developed economy and compete with other countries, there must be areas where the country should be better than others.
He said that the major challenges in the country presently was that Nigeria had been importing almost everything while not contributing much to the global economy.
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