The Nation Newspaper

Tag: R&D

  • NCC okays N50m for R&D in varsities

    Telecoms industry regulator, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), said as a demonstration of its desire to encourage the development of innovation, it has given N50 million to members of the Nigerian Academy of Engineering (NAE) and various universities to promote Research and Development (R&D).

    Its Executive Vice-Chairman, Prof. Umar Danbatta, who spoke in Lagos at the weekend on the sideline of a dinner organised by NAE, explained that the N50 million was in fulfilment of part of NCC’s Eight-point agenda he unveiled, one of which is to seek strategic collaboration and partnership.

    “Only recently, we gave out N50 million to members of the Academy and staff from various universities in Nigeria to facilitate the conduct of research that will translate into innovation and will ultimately address challenges in the industry,” Danbatta said.

    He said the NCC will always seek collaboration that will see to the disruption of innovation, which according to him, would bring about new ways of doing things, enhance efficiency and productivity. “NCC realises the importance of collaboration. That is why we put strategic collaboration and partnership in our Eight-point agenda,” Danbatta said.

    He said the collaboration between the academia and the industry has taken a firm root with a lot of work going on, assuring that very soon, NCC will announce the results of these collaborations with NAE.

  • FIIRO woos Unilever on R&D commercialisation

    FIIRO woos Unilever on R&D commercialisation

    Consumer products giant, Unilever Plc and the Federal Institute for Industrial Research Oshodi (FIIRO) are poised to seal a bilateral agreement on commercialisation of some of the research products of the institute.

    This was disclosed when a technical team from Unilever Plc visited  FIIRO office in Lagos.

    On the occasion, FIIRO Director-General Prof Gloria Elemo showed some of the researches to the delegation; saying the institute was well endowed to deliver at all time and that it was open to collaborations with Unilever in various areas.

    She called for collaboration on  product development and commercialisation, adding that the raw materials, crops and technical back-up for the exploitation of research results were available and in the right quantity and quality.

    Prof Elemo stressed that FIIRO was well positioned to see to the transfer of appropriate technologies that could catalyse industrialisation, urging  organisations and individuals  to invest in the various products that the institute had perfected.

  • FIIRO woos Unilever on R&D commercialisation

    FIIRO woos Unilever on R&D commercialisation

    Unilever Plc and the Federal Institute for Industrial Research Oshodi (FIIRO) are poised to seal an agreement on the commercialisation of some research products.

    This was disclosed  when a technical team from Unilever Plc visited FIIRO in Lagos, during the week.

    FIRRO Director-General Prof Gloria Elemo displayed some research work to the delegation, saying the institute was well endowed to deliver any time, and that it was open to collaborations in various areas.

    She called for collaboration with Unilever on product development and commercialisation, adding that the raw materials, crops and technical back-up for exploitation of research results were available in the country and in the right quantity and quality.

    Elemo stressed that FIIRO was well positioned to effectively see to the transfer of appropriate technologies that could catalyse industrialisation.

    She said this could only be meaningful if organisations like Unilever and individuals looked inwards and invested heavily in the various areas of Research & Development (R&D) products that the Institute hadperfected on.

    “Many companies come and pick the technologies we have here and we work with them. You can come and do same. We have a lot of evidence to show our competence in the areas enumerated.

    “Today, all the breweries in Nigeria use our technology since sorghum malt replaced barley malt in the brewing industry (alcoholic and non-alcoholic drink) and this has saved the country several millions of dollars,” Elemo stressed.

    Some of the areas FIIRO boss said Unilever could leverage include food spread (jam and marmalade), cashew nut processing, fruit processing technologies  (for fruit juice extraction and bottling ), industrial enzymes production, essential oil extraction, adhesives production, soaps ,cosmetics, and  antiseptics.

    Responding, the leader of the Unilever delegation, Bridget Mayor, was amazed at the level of activities going on at the institute. She said the visit was an eye-opener to what FIIRO could do, and expressed the company’s readiness to tap into some of the research results.

    Mayor, who is the Head, R&D in Food Development Homecare at Unilever, stated that with what the team saw, their only worry would be FIIRO’s readiness in terms of guaranteeing quantity and quality of raw materials, compliance with international standards and technology transfer that could sustain commercialisation.

    She specially noted that Unilever was interested in corn and cassava starch production and spices, such as onions and garlic.

    “We are ready to partner FIRRO. FIIRRO needs to allay these fears in the above areas for immediate partnership agreement. Design and fabrication, are they world-class? Claim performance test, is it available in terms of infrastructure?” she asked.

    The FIIRO chief while assuring the team of world-class standard in its products, however, observed that organisations such as Unilever should ensure effective technology transfer to aid the commercialisation of available raw materials.

  • Rep urges IOCs to establish R&D centres in Nigeria

    House of Representatives Committee on Local Content Development Chairman Emmanuel Ekon has asked the International Oil Companies (IOCs) to establish Research and Development Centres (R&D) in Nigeria.

    Speaking in Lagos, Ekon expressed disappointment that after many decades of operation in the country, the research-based international oil companies, including Halli-burton and Schlumberger, have only a piece of land in Port Harcourt, describing the development as a mockery.

    The IOCs have research and development centres in countries, such as India, and Malaysia that don’t have the volume of oil Nigeria has.

    “Does it make any sense for the IOCs to tell us that after 52 years of being in Nigeria, they only have a piece of land in the University of Port Harcourt, while they have built  R&D centres in India and Malaysia that do not have the quantum of oil Nigeria has?

    “So, they need to also help us develop one here, that will also take care of Sub-Sahara need. We should stop talking. We should practise what we are talking about,”Ekon said.

    Ekon said the Local Content Board is in the mission of collaborating with the IOCs and other services’ providers to get research and development centre built in the country. ‘’We are going into a private discussion with them and, hopefully, we will come out with an idea.’’

    “I told them that they need to establish themselves as regulators, not somebody that will go beggarly to the majors. We don’t beg; as regulators, there are certain things that they can do, and people will respect you and do your bidding. There are a lot of things that could be done to cause this to happen, so I believe that we are going to work together,’’ he stated.

    He was confident that with the leadership of the present local content board, in the next one year efforts towards realising this objective would have had visible implementation.

    “By next year, I want to see something concrete. I want us to translate all those visions,  ideas, into reality and I believe that with the people in the content board we are going to see something tangible in the next one year.”

  • NCDMB creates council for R&D in oil, gas

    NCDMB creates council for R&D in oil, gas

    A Research and Development (R&D) Council will be constituted for the oil and gas industry to integrate research initiatives of stakeholders.

    It will also steer them towards achieving tangible and beneficial outcomes, the Executive Secretary, Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), Simbi Wabote, has said.

    He stated this at the just concluded maiden Nigerian Oil and Gas Research and Development Fair and Conference held in Lagos. He said  members of the council will include representatives of operating and service companies, relevant agencies of government, the academia, Nigerian University Commission (NUC) and top research centres in the country.

    According to him, R&D efforts by stakeholders need to offer real value and relevance to the oil and gas industry so that companies would support and fund them. He said the Board would change the framework of executing and funding research in the industry, noting that R&D would henceforth form part of deliverables on projects. “R&D will be treated like capacity building initiatives and we will close gaps. The Board will fund good research projects; companies could also be asked to take up research ideas and fund. We want quick wins and such research must solve problems and get to deployment stage.”

    He assured that oil industry’s research interventions would be very focused and devoid of distractions.

    Wabote said: “We will deal with this the same way the oil and gas industry deals with its business.

    “The Board will establish research clusters covering engineering studies, geological and physical studies, local material substitution and technology adaptation in four universities in Nigeria.

    “We will utilise Fairs like this to identify top-five research presentations for development finance consideration by the operators and other government agencies. Already, we have selected five foremost researchers in the oil and gas sector that shall be awarded a pilot grant of N56 million. This will assist in developing their inventions further to commercially acceptable standard products.”