Mr Ife Adebayo, the special assistant to the Vice President on innovation has stated that it was critical at the moment to have better synergy between research outcomes, academia outcomes and innovation outcomes within the institutions of higher learning and industry. He also said that this is particularly important in view of the government’s current steps in prioritizing economic interventions for growth and development.
Speaking at the Government, Industry and Academia (GIA) workshop organized by the AUST Inspire Business Incubation Centre, which was held at the African University of Science and Technology, Abuja, Adebayo agreed that institutions of higher learning have contributed to the nation’s development given the number of talents that have been churned out of the system. But he said there remained major gaps in academia with regard to their funding answers to the socio-economics issues confronting the country.
According to the presidential aide: “what we should look out for more now, is how institutions can contribute directly to industrial outcomes, contribute directly to innovation outcomes and contribute directly to the output of manufacturing; for example, and contribute directly to the specific priorities of the government in various areas.”
Adebayo also said that the emergence of the Nigerian startup law which he said was a joint effort of the ecosystem, president Muhammadu Buhari and the Minister of communication and Digital Economy, Professor Isa Ali pantami, will among other things, provide some form of regulatory protection and insight for the start-up ecosystem.
He added, “The beautiful thing about the bill was that it was the government and private sector coming together to put something on the table that would support the ecosystem and the bill is also scheduled to be reviewed annually to ensure there is continuous and incremental improvement to it’s effect and impact in the ecosystem.”
