How We Intend To Lift 100m Nigerians Out Of Poverty- FG
The Minister of Science and Technology Dr Ogbonnaya Onu, Monday said the Federal Government would deploy science, technology and innovation to actualize President Muhammadu Buhari’s promise of freeing 100 million Nigerians from the poverty trap.
Dr Onu spoke while addressing Supervising Directors, Heads of Agencies and staff of the Ministry in Abuja.
According to him, “There is no way you can move Nigeria out of poverty without the inputs of Science and Technology. It is Science, Technology and Innovation that will help us to create new technologies and those new technologies will now be the basis of the new status.
‘That is to say, new enterprises and entrepreneurs will now grow by using those new technologies. The smaller businesses created will grow from medium to large scale, thereby enhancing wealth creation, poverty alleviation and improvement in Gross Domestic Products, GDP.”
The minister reiterated the ministry’s commitment to leveraging on Federal Government’s first four years’ objectives to grow the economy, secure the nation, fight corruption and have a transparent government.
The ministry, he noted would “play a pivotal role to drive these objectives to ensure optimum contributions to the development of our great Nation in areas of Science, Technology and Innovation.”
Onu said for Nigeria to sustain its status as the largest economy in Africa by improving her productivity through science and technology, noting that “the difference between developed and developing countries is the application of science and technology.
‘Developed countries applied science and technology to everything they do while developing countries do not have sufficient application for science and Technology.
We all have the responsibility of making sure we move away from our dependence on foreign products and rely on knowledge and innovation.
By doing that, we now give our economy the opportunity to grow on a very fast rate as we have seen it happening in China.”
