Sola Ojo, Kaduna

The leadership of Arewa Youth Assembly on Sunday appealed to the leadership of the 9th National Assembly to give speedy passage of the bill to establish a National Innovation Agency (NiNNOVA Establishment Bill 2020) which has already scaled through the first reading early July.

The bill, sponsored by the lawmaker representing Nnewi North/South/Ekwusigo Federal Constituency, Chris Emeka Azubogu, is expected to play a leading role in the development of Nigerias innovation ecosystem by coordinating, networking, fostering, and partnering different organizations from various fields such as academia, technology, industry, finance and investment.

The group in a statement through its Speaker, Mohammed salihu Danlami noted that, the main focus of the agency if established, would be on utilizing knowledge management to achieve innovation, which could be employed as the principal tool in improving quality of life and as a driving tool for an increasingly competitive economy.

According to Mohammed, NiNNOVA would undertake a broad-based and systematic approach in facilitating innovation development in Nigeria, both in terms of making improvements and pioneering new initiatives.

More precisely, NiNNOVA will focus on fostering strategic innovation and industry innovation, which will enhance national productivity, encourage economic restructuring and social development as well as promote national competitiveness by focusing on coordinating industrial clusters both at the policy and operational levels, promoting innovation culture and building up innovation systems, with a broader aim to transform Nigeria into an innovation-driven economy.

The National innovation Agency, if enacted, will coordinate innovation activities as well as administer funding to grow and support the innovation ecosystem and entrepreneurship in Nigeria. It shall exist to promote the development of efficient and innovative Nigerian systems within thematic areas such as technology, ICT, nanomedicine, nanotechnology, agriculture, agribusiness, biotechnology, health, education etc, he added..He continued, this is what Nigeria lacks but so desperately needs at the moment so that we can have a knowledge-based economy, commodity-based economy such as the one we currently operate does not get any country anywhere in terms of national development.

To buttress his point of view on the bill Mohammed sited example of South Korea, which developed an innovation-based economy and is not up to the size of a state in the Soviet Union, has about the economic size of the Soviet Union. China, Japan and India which are global economic giants do not have a drop of oil. India for instance rakes in a whopping 140 billion USD annually from ICT-based solutions and services.

This is just an inkling of what can be achieved through innovation. The Swedish Innovation Agency champions and coordinates innovation-based activities in Sweden for national development. The Thailand Innovation Agency plays a similar role in Thailand. The list is endless; virtually every country in the world has an Agency whose mandate is the coordination of innovation for national development.

In view of the crucial and critical role the National Innovation Agency will play in re-tooling our national economy for national development, we therefore urge the Honourable Speaker of the House of Representatives Rt. Hon Femi Gbajabiamila to please call for the second reading of this Bill and to expedite action for its eventual passage as such an agency will add huge value to Nigeria in terms of wealth creation and overall national competitiveness and development, the group added.

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Northern youth group seeks speedy passage of Bill to establish National Innovation agency - Daily Sun