No doubt at the heart of every economic development lies technology the world over. Those judicious roles played by technology that fuels economic development just like it is the lack of it resulting from poor policies that ruin the industrialization of any country. Today, the new source of competitive advantage is technology centricity: deeply understanding how technology can boost economic development. Authentically, what increasingly separates winners from losers is the ability to transform opportunity into results. And as the famous English philosopher John Locke rightly said” I have always thought the actions of men the best interpreters of their thought”
We live in a real-life situation where things work and most work perfectly, and as desired. It is where and when expectation and fulfillment meet. The benefit of tapping into vast quantities of technological knowledge available worldwide is unquantified.
The primacy of technology as indispensable cannot be overemphasized. Technology impacts positively on an individual’s quality of life and it’s functionality has implications on the national economy as epitomised by the facts that, all activities around us now have input of technology: business transaction, classroom teaching, examination conduct, office process automation, health, and life-saving equipment, election conduct, ease of communication, security of life and property and many more. One important visible hands of technology are to leverage biotechnology to address local agricultural challenges and the focus on problems such as pests, disease, drought and low nutritional content of staple crops as an impact on economic development. Also, both in the service and manufacturing sector, technology remains imperative and an engine to drive economic development. It, therefore, goes without saying that technology plays a critical role in the development of individual and how the individual interacts with others in the society with a view to wealth creation and national productivity as well as overall economic development of a nation.
Indeed, with technology, economic activities would optimally benefit the domestic industry, since it will create the secondary sectors of industrial processing. This could, however in the context of the imperative of technology provide a virtuous circle of a performing economic development. Just how crucial a vibrant domestic industry is to the economy is reflected in the technology application. A thriving technology application has a multiplier effect on agriculture, banking, medicine, transportation, health, security, electric power generation, and manufacturing and for mankind in general. It is no gainsaying that technology provides an incentive for a dynamic and creative economy via gainful industrialization. Technology strengthens industrial development and encourages domestic enterprise.
To move Nigeria from the periphery to the dominant center of global industrial power, demand the swift application of technology development. We, however, appreciate as well encourage Nigeria government through the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology and all the seven-teen (17) parastatals and agencies under her, the academicians,scientist,inventors,researchers,innovators and all stakeholders in the science and technology ,innovation, research, development and innovation system to see beyond the horizon by pushing technology application frontiers toward, as driver of our economic development.
No other sector in Nigeria knows this fact today as much as you do. And have the responsibility to bring out technology-the unseen hands behind global economic development. Not only that but to commence advocacy that “science and technology is a task that must be done if Nigeria must come out of its present economic wood”.
We see the possibility of an onward economic development with a growing groundswell of interest as demonstrated by the current Honourable Minister of Science and Technology, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu and Minister of State Science and Technology Barrister Mohammed Abdullahi as well as all stakeholders in the sector. This will spur more scientific research and technology development. Very importantly, technology is worthwhile and it holds the key as we keep exploring it benefits to further the resolution of our economic development. Technology remains one of the crucible pathways to shared prosperity in Nigeria for the good of all. Creating technology-driven economies will demand greater investment in smart government policy that supports technology development. Nigeria’s industrialization can only be successful with science and technology, innovation, research and development and this will help us to compete favorably in the 21st-century global markets and beyond.
Political Economist & Development Researcher and the Editor of Innovation Nigeria News Magazine
Email: adefolarin77@gmail.com
Tel: 08073014436
