Alausa Tasks Varsities, NASENI To Turn Research Into Businesses, Jobs

The Minister of Education, Dr Maruf Tunji Alausa, has challenged Nigerian universities and the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI) to move research beyond academic publications and prototypes by turning innovations into businesses, jobs and products that can drive Nigeria’s economic growth.

Alausa said stronger collaboration between universities, industry and investors was essential to unlocking the economic value of the country’s large pool of researchers, academics and students and advancing Nigeria’s ambition of building a $1 trillion economy.

The minister spoke during a presentation to vice chancellors, directors of academic affairs, directors of postgraduate studies and officials of the Federal Ministry of Education’s Directorate of University Education on the proposed partnership between universities and NASENI through the NASENI Campus.

He said the initiative offered an opportunity to create a direct pipeline connecting university research with advanced laboratories, prototyping facilities, industries and investors.

According to him, Nigeria could no longer afford a situation where potentially valuable research ended in university libraries without being developed into products or services capable of solving societal problems and creating wealth.

Alausa said Nigerian researchers should be encouraged to patent their inventions, develop them into commercially viable products and work with investors to establish companies around their innovations.

He drew lessons from the innovation ecosystem around Cambridge, Massachusetts, where universities, research institutions, investors and industries work together to transform research into commercial ventures.

The minister urged NASENI to establish stronger affiliations with universities located around its development centres, noting that such partnerships would give the agency access to a large pool of researchers and young innovators while providing universities with facilities and industry connections needed to commercialise their work.

He said NASENI could help bridge the gap by supporting patent registration, linking researchers with venture capital and facilitating the establishment of spin-off companies.

Alausa also urged the agency to explore opportunities in lithium processing and battery manufacturing as Nigeria seeks to expand its renewable energy and industrial capabilities.

He said the country’s human capital could only translate into economic prosperity when knowledge and innovation were converted into productive ventures.

Speaking earlier, the Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of NASENI, Khalil Suleiman Halilu, outlined the agency’s efforts to move research and innovation from the prototype stage to commercial production.

Halilu said the initiative was in line with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s directive that research outputs should not remain at the level of prototypes but should be developed into products capable of meeting market needs.

He said the proposed NASENI Campus, located within a 100-hectare free trade zone, was being developed as an integrated ecosystem where researchers, professors, prototyping facilities, industries and commercialisation opportunities could operate within the same environment.

According to him, several factories and industrial facilities had already been established within the zone, creating an environment where innovations could be developed, tested and taken to the market.

The Vice Chancellor of the University of Abuja, Prof Hakeem Babatunde Fawehinmi, said the university’s existing collaboration with NASENI demonstrated the potential of the model being advocated by the minister.

He said the partnership had resulted in the development of an integrated agriculture incubation centre, greenhouse facilities, automated poultry systems and tissue culture laboratories to support undergraduate and postgraduate research.

Fawehinmi said the university was ready to expand its partnership with NASENI into areas including dairy science and renewable energy.

Similarly, the Vice Chancellor of Bayero University, Kano, Prof Haruna Musa, said the institution was exploring deeper collaboration with NASENI in nanotechnology, vaccinology, toxinology and mathematical modelling.

Musa disclosed that two research projects from the university had reached the final stage of NASENI’s research commercialisation grant process.

They include a reusable sanitary pad project and the commercial production of sweet potato-based starch derivatives.

The projects, he said, demonstrated how research conducted within Nigerian universities could be developed into products with commercial and social value.

Alausa said the Federal Ministry of Education would continue to work with NASENI, universities and other stakeholders to establish a functional pathway linking research, innovation, investment, production and employment.

He said the objective of the Federal Government was not merely to increase the volume of research produced by Nigerian universities but to ensure that knowledge and innovation generated within the institutions contributed directly to national development.

Under the Renewed Hope Agenda of the Tinubu administration, the minister said, universities must increasingly become centres for innovation and enterprise capable of producing solutions, businesses and employment opportunities.

He maintained that closer links between academia and industry would help Nigeria turn its human capital into sustainable economic prosperity.