ABUJA – Prof. Umaru Bindir, Director-General, National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP), on Wednesday said the agency’s mandate was to regulate technology and not
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finished products.
Bindir said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.[pro_ad_display_adzone id=”10″]
According to him, there is a difference between technology and product and what NOTAP is interested in is the technology in the product.
He said that a product such as telephone had got a lot of technologies in it and it had got a brand of software with a processing methodology.
“All these technologies put together ensure a good and effective product but NOTAP has nothing to do with the importation of low quality products.
“You can import televisions; however the subject matter of import where NOTAP regulates is when you are importing the product and the technology.
“When Nigeria is acquiring a power plant, the engineers will do a feasibility study of the area, develop a specification for the plant, design, build and test it before you now have a product.
“What NOTAP regulates is that process of the technology from the feasibility study to construction process,’’ the director-general said.
He said the consultancy aspect of these technologies should be done by Nigerians and not foreigners because this was the only way the citizens could learn and master them.
“So, this is the way we set the regulatory platform to ensure that Nigerians learn but if it is already a finished product that is standardised like a bottle of coke, we have nothing to do with it.
“We protect the Nigerian interest in terms of the technology and certainly the relevance of the technology as well as the dependence on the technology.
“So certain technologies that are experimental are not allowed into the country.
“NOTAP checks where this technology has been implemented before and the reaction of people to it before we give approval to the company for further actions,’’ Bindir said. (NAN)
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