The National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI) has said that several of its newly unveiled tech products are ready to hit the Nigerian market.
This announcement was made on Thursday during an oversight visit by the House of Representatives committee on NASENI at the Agency’s headquarters in Abuja.
“Over the past few months, we have implemented several key initiatives aimed at transforming our operations from primarily research-based activities to commercialisation of our products and services,” Mr. Khalil Suleiman Halilu, NASENI Executive Vice Chairman/Chief Executive Officer told the lawmakers.
Halilu assured the committee that 35 of NASENI’s products, including NASENI laptops, smartphones, lithium batteries, solar lights,irrigation systems, electric bicycles, and electric tricycles, are “market ready” and certified by the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON).
NASENI went further to showcase two new electric vehicle (EV) prototypes to the lawmakers.
This focus on commercialisation aligns with NASENI’s goal of boosting Nigeria’s economy and achieving sustainable development goals, according to Halilu. He said that 85% of NASENI projects rely on partnerships, highlighting the agency’s “3C” principle of Collaboration, Creation and Commercialisation. The agency aims to work with the private sector to ensure NASENI inventions reach everyday Nigerians.
“We don’t want our products to end up on shelves, but to get to the end users,” Halilu said. NASENI plans to achieve this by establishing showrooms in all 36 states of Nigeria, making domestic tech more accessible than ever before.
Otunba Abimbola Ajilesoro, House Committee on NASENI Chairman, said that the Committee has been following NASENI’s activities and as such, it “deemed it necessary to see for ourselves, these products and other technologies that will enhance Nigeria’s economy.”
For Ajilesoro, “while the committee will continually give all necessary support periodically, it will demand accountability and value for money in the implementation of its lofty programmes embedded in the mission and vision of the agency. This would enable us expand, deepen and create an enduring part for a sustainable technological advancement, thereby enabling the nation to become an industrial hub among the comity of nations.”
The Committee’s visit comes after President Bola Ahmed Tinubu pitched Made-in-Nigeria products. The President, represented by Senate President Godswill Akpabio, said this during the inauguration of the NASENI-Portland Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) Conversion, Filling, Reverse Engineering and Training Centre, in Utako, Abuja last month. He wants the public sector to adopt NASENI’s technologies to promote Made-in-Nigeria goods and reduce importation, as noted in an earlier Technology Times report.
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