NIGERIA NEEDS N500BN FOR BREAKTHROUGH IN RESEARCH, DEVT

Director-General, Raw Materials Research and Development Council (RMRDC), Prof. Peter Onwualu said this while speaking with newsmen at the weekend.

He said the fund should be used for the establishment of the proposed National Science Foundation in the country to energize the sector as obtained in other developed countries.

Onwualu said for Nigeria to make a ground breaking research and advancement in technological development, researchers, industrialists, businessmen amongst others need the funds, advising that Nigerians should overlook the immediate gain and concentrate on the long-term benefit.

Onwualu noted that science foundation would do a lot for this country, where the entrepreneur who does not only need to be an academic before accessing the funds would be provided for if he meets up with the requirement so as to help develop the nation's economy.

The DG noted that America and other developed nations were able to get it right economically and technologically because such funds were available for the industrialists, businessmen and researchers to access.

The DG disclosed that although there is no bill yet before the National Assembly in this regard, but however stated that the federal government has accepted the proposal in principle and would eventually bring the bill before the legislatur  where certain percentage of the nation's profit would be deducted for the National Science Foundation.

The DG stressed that such funds, which he described as venture capital are not given as loan, because the time of gestation to maturity takes long, maintaining that industrialists, researchers and businessmen required some number of years five to ten-years-before paying back the loan and in most cases without interest.