Reps harp on need for Research in specialised government institutions

JONAS EZIEKE, Abuja 

Specialized Federal Government FGN agencies under the Ministry of Science and Technology have been charged with leveraging on their specialities and research findings in transforming Nigeria to an industrialized nation.

This a lawmaker said they can do through radical collaboration and partnership with the private sector on the development of successful research findings by these agencies.

Chairman House of Representatives Committee on Science and Technology Hon. Beni Lar stated this yesterday at the Budget Defence exercise with the Shedda Science and Technology Complex SHESTCO and the energy Commission of Nigeria ECN.

She noted with concern the recent terrorist attack on Shedda  and its effects on the Research Centre and Community as a whole, adding that the incident stalled the Committee’s oversight visit to the institute this year.

She described SHESTCO as a national coordination centre for advanced academic and specialized researches in physics, chemistry, microbiology and atomic energy, fields which she noted were vital for industrialization of a nation.

SHESTCO’s Director General Prof. Paul Onyenekwe in an overview of the the 2022 budget said with an overall total recurrent cost of N905.51 million and a capital expenditure of N232 Million, the complex could only record modest breakthroughs in research findings due to lack of specialized personnel and high cost of research funding.

The intellectual who announced a total figure of N2.561 as the package for SHESTCO’s 2023 budget proposal added that the Centre would be looking forward to international research funds to argument budgetary provisions.

On it’s own part, the Energy Commission of Nigeria ECN through its Director General Prof. Daira Bala announced a figure of N963.74 million as the total capital proposal for 2023 budget and that it will be seeking alternative funding platforms in the coming financial year.

The 2023 budget proposals for both agencies of the Ministry of Science and Technology were adopted by the Committee with the provision that they would have to come back to give details of line by line expenditure items as contained in it’s 2022 budget.

Many Committee members expressed their belief that it is only a satisfactory review of a preceding budget that that committee would be favourably disposed to allocating funds for the next year’s budget.

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