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| Minister of Science and Technology, Dr Ogbonnaya Onu |
The Federal Government has said that Nigeria will be able to save the sum of N3.6tn if the rates of importing goods and services are cut down within the next 36 months.
The Minister of Science and Technology, Dr Ogbonnaya Onu, made this remark in Port Harcourt on Thursday while delivering the 32nd Convocation Lecture of the University of Port Harcourt with the theme: ‘Science and Technology as a Driver of Economic Recovery and Growth Plan of a Nation’.
Onu also said that with the reduction in the consumption of foreign goods and services, the country would be able to create about 4.4 million jobs for Nigerians.
He explained that the country had a huge potential in the textile and leather industry, recalling that past effort aimed at industrialising the nation did not succeed.
He further maintained that no country could be great without science and technology.
The minister said, “Nigeria stands to save N3.6tn if they reduce importation of goods and services for three years. About 4.4 million jobs will be created. All efforts made in the past to industrialise the nation has not yielded any result.
“I believe that if we are able to revamp the leather and textile industries, they will go a long way to grow the economy. I am convinced that no nation has ever, and will ever become truly great without effectively utilising science and technology.
“This is because the economic development of any nation depends on the effective and efficient utilisation of its natural resources so as to take care of her people’s basic needs.
“In other to achieve this, the citizens must understand the laws of nature and are able to put them into practice by devising appropriate tools, hence acquiring science and technology with continuous innovation should be vigorously pursued by any nation particularly in its institutions of higher learning.”
