Dangote Oil Refinery has partnered the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) to promote research and development in the oil and gas sector of the country.
Speaking during his visit to Dangote Oil Refinery exhibition booth at the NCDMB Research & Development fair and conference 2021, Executive Secretary of the Board, Simbi Wabote, commended the company for showing support to the board by participating in the fair.
Already, Dangote Oil Refinery has selected six graduates across the six geopolitical zones in conjunction with NCDMB to take the MSc and/or PhD programmes at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria for Research & Development in Zeolites ZM5in.
Themed, ‘Creating sustainable collaboration in research and development for the energy sector’, the conference created a convergence of researchers, industry players, investors, finance enterprises and manufacturing companies to identify patentable or commercially viable products resulting from R&D activities.
Wabote expressed the need for companies in Nigeria oil and gas sector to start nurturing the growth of the country’s home-grown technology rather than just being wholesome consumers of other people’s innovations.
In his opening remarks, he stated: “Analysis of global practices of Research and Development revealed that the combined R&D spend of just five countries makes up 63.5 per cent of the entire global R&D spend. These five countries, namely USA, China, Japan, Germany, and India were also observed to have accounted for over 50 per cent of the global Gross Domestic Products.
“Africa, on the other hand, accounted for less than one per cent of the global R&D spend, while its GDP is only three per cent of the global GDP. You will agree with me that there is a nexus between the spend on Research and Development and economic prosperity,” the Executive Secretary added.
The minister, represented by the Permanent Secretary, Nasir Sani-Gwarzo, also called on industry stakeholders and youths across the country to take advantage of the NCDMB R&D centre to bolster adaptation of existing solutions and also come up with new ones to address major challenges in the industry.
The Bayelsa State Governor, Douye Diri, represented by his deputy, Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo, said the theme for the fair captures stakeholders’ collective commitment to aggressively drive innovation and position the oil industry on the path of an integrated energy sector, where field development and production solutions are sourced through local capabilities.
He emphasised the need for private sector operators to invest in research and development. “It is important, however, to clear up a certain misconception: The funding of research is not the sole responsibility of National Governments; rather, big spenders on research and development globally come from the private sector,” he added.
The Guardian News
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