Minister hinges devt on process technology

The ability of the nation to achieve set national development goals depends on its ability to develop process technologies for the conversion of its abundant natural resources, the Minister of Science and Technology, Prof. Ita Ewa, has said.
Ewa said this at the Award Ceremony for the 3rd National Competition on Design of Process Equipment and Plants organised in Abuja by the Raw Materials Research and Development Council.
The minister said the country was still battling with the fundamentals of the first industrial revolution because of its failure to appreciate the importance of local capability in technological development.
He said, "Engineering and technology have always been used as catalysts for transforming natural resources into goods and services for improved standard of living. The newly industrialised nations have taken this approach and achieved considerable technological advancement and economic gains.
"Many of the other industrialised countries took different paths in their quest for development of engineering and technological capabilities.
"While some of them embraced a broader scientific culture linked to education, development of modern professions, others introduced modern technology with little focus on frontier science, but heavy emphasis on building skills and creating incentives for discoveries and technological adaptation."
Ewa said without adequate process technologies, the nation's abundant natural resources mean little or nothing, adding that natural resources no longer define the ranking of nations in the international community.
Speaking at the ceremony, RMRDC Director General, Prof. Peter Onwualu, regretted that the nation had for long depended on imported process technologies.
He said, "The absence of appropriate local technology and the challenges associated with imported machinery constitute great hindrance to raw materials processing in Nigeria.
"Most of the available processing equipment are outdated and those fabricated locally are done without any design. All the industries who use modern equipment import over 90 per cent of their machinery.
"For Nigeria to succeed in her efforts towards value addition and processing of natural resources, the entire value chain from mining and harvesting to processing into different intermediary raw materials must be developed."
The National Competition on Process Equipment Design was conceived by RMRDC in 2005 with the aim of promoting the adaptation of process equipment and plants.
At the ceremony, a team of engineers from the Obafemi Awolowo University received the first prize for the design of a machine for the drying of groundnut. They also received unspecified sum of money as a grant for the fabrication of the machine.