President Muhammadu Buhari has said that his administration’s goal of curbing unemployment and ensuring economic stability can only be achieved through investment in science and technology.
Buhari said this during a meeting of the National Research and Innovation Council at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
He said “Nigeria’s vision of becoming one of the 20 largest economies in the world by the year 2020 is only attainable when science, technology and innovation are fully integrated into our national socio-economic development process. That process will now be fast-tracked with the coming on board of this council.
“I wish to assure this council of my determination and commitment to ensure that, as a nation, we will invest appropriately in science, technology and innovation in order to guarantee our competitiveness both continentally and globally.
“Our goal to secure our nation, grow our economy, create jobs and fight crime can best be achieved if we embrace science and technology.”
He expressed hope that soon the nation’s research and innovation output should be measured by number of intellectual property such as patents granted and not only by the number of articles published in scholarly journals.