The Federal Government’s National Communications Team on Tuesday toured key facilities of the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI) in Abuja, where it was presented with dozens of locally developed technologies and market-ready products aimed at reducing Nigeria’s import dependence and driving industrialisation.
The delegation, led by the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris Malagi, included the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Public Communications, Sunday Dare, alongside other members of the presidential communications team.
The visitors were taken round the NASENI Showroom, the NASENI-Troment Rapid Diagnostics Factory, the Centre of Excellence and other facilities, where they inspected products already developed for commercial deployment.
The products showcased included locally assembled electric vehicles and tricycles, PowerStoves, liquid fertilisers, solar-powered irrigation and water pumping systems, drones, agricultural processing equipment, solar street lights, diagnostic kits, defence technologies and aerospace innovations, among other indigenous technologies. NASENI said the agency now has more than 40 market-ready products under its commercialisation drive.
Speaking after the tour, Idris said many of the agency’s achievements remain unknown to Nigerians, stressing the need for greater public awareness of government innovations.
He said the communications team had expanded its engagement beyond political activities to ministries, departments and agencies to ensure Nigerians receive more information on government programmes and results.
‘We need to do more of this so that Nigerians can have so many things to talk about,’ the minister said.
He urged journalists to focus more attention on issues such as technology transfer and local manufacturing, rather than concentrating only on partisan politics.
The minister commended NASENI for opening its facilities to the media, saying such engagements would enable journalists to report government initiatives from firsthand experience.
According to him, the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu remains committed to repositioning Nigeria’s economy through industrialisation and local production.
‘Our journey towards prosperity that Mr President promised when he took office is upon us, and we are marching in that direction. Join us in believing in what we are doing because we are already seeing results,’ he said.
Earlier, the Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of NASENI, Khalil Suleiman Halilu, said the media tour was designed to expose members of the presidential communications team to the agency’s transformation under the Renewed Hope Agenda and provide them with firsthand knowledge of its industrialisation projects.
Halilu said NASENI had repositioned from a traditional research and development institution into a commercialisation-driven agency built on what he described as the ‘3Cs’ strategy of Creation, Collaboration and Commercialisation.
He said the agency’s focus now spans local manufacturing, renewable energy, healthcare innovation, technology transfer, strategic partnerships and commercialisation of indigenous technologies.
Among the flagship projects highlighted were the NASENI-Troment Factory for rapid diagnostic kits in Abuja, the 40-hectare Solar Industrial Park in Gora, Nasarawa State, electric vehicle assembly at the Abuja Technology Village, CNG conversion centres in Utako and Kubwa, and the Defence Equipment Reverse Engineering Centre in Bwari.
Halilu said the agency was implementing projects aligned with the Federal Government’s industrialisation agenda through local manufacturing, technology transfer and research commercialisation.
According to him, the strategy is expected to create jobs, reduce capital flight, boost exports and strengthen Nigeria’s technological capacity while moving innovations from laboratories to factories and the marketplace.