The National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI), said it would intensify efforts to provide enabling environment for sustainable industrialisation of the country.
Prof. Mohammed Haruna, the Executive Vice Chairman of NASENI, made this known to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Monday.
According to him, the agency is working hard to empower SMEs through the impartation of technologies, engineering principles and production of equipment to boost local industries.
Haruna told NAN that NASENI would make available primary and intermediate capital products required for machine, equipment design, fabrication and mass production in the Nigerian market.
“This will lay the proper foundation for development and sustainable industrialisation of the country,’’ he said.
He added that the mandate of NASENI was specifically in the area of capital goods research, production and reverse engineering.
He said that the agency had started training many of its staff abroad in the areas of nanotechnology applications.
Nanotechnology is the study and application of extremely small things and can be used across all the other science fields such as chemistry.
According to him, nanotechnology has the potential to stimulate a revitalisation in Nigeria’s science to provide innovation solutions to problems in a number of different sectors.
“These include new approaches to nano-medicine, nano-engineered seeds, plants and animals for improved agriculture, nano-scale thin films for solar cells and light emitting devices for alternative energy.
Another one is nano-structured porous materials for water purification.
“Nano-science and nanotechnology will also provide new frontiers that would promote interdisciplinary collaboration between researchers in universities and research institutions across different parts of the world,’’ he said.
