Prof. Linus Asuquo, the Director-General, National Metallurgical Development Centre (NMDC), Jos, has advised the Federal Government to allocate more funds to support research and development in the country.
Asuquo gave the advice on Wednesday when the Vice Chancellor of the University of Jos, Prof. Tanko Ishaya, visited him in Jos.
According him, government needs to invest more in research, particularly in the area of science and technology.
“Research is capital intensive, modern equipment and facilities are equally expensive; so for this country to grow, a lot of funding is needed for research and development.
“If we really want to develop this country, government must invest at least three per cent of our Gross Domestic Products (GDP) to support research and development.
“This is the way to go if we really want to make significant progress in our country especially, in the area of steel development,” he said
The director-general also identified inadequate funding as one of the major challenges facing the centre.
“The centre is facing funding challenge because budgetary allocation is grossly inadequate to fund all our needs.
“As we speak, some of our plants and facilities are moribund due to inadequate funding,” he decried.
Asuquo said that in spite of its funding challenge, the centre had recorded significant improvement in the last few years.
He added that his administration would explore means toward making the centre more functional.
He revealed that the centre had trained 106 students of the university in the last five years, pledging that more students would be trained.
Earlier, the vice chancellor said that the visit was to open up areas of collaboration toward enhancing research and development in the country.
Ishaya, who said some countries were developed based on quality research, adding that the collaboration between the university and the centre was timely.
He explained that the collaboration would create the desired impact locally and internationally, saying that the centre is well equipped to carry out research that will promote steel development in the country.
Source; NAN
