Expert seeks use of innovation to improve livelihoods

Prof. Olalekan Akinbo, Supervisor at Centre of Excellence in STI, African Union Development Agency (AUDA –NEPAD), has called on Nigeria and other African countries to take advantage of innovation to improve livelihoods of citizens.

Akinbo made the call while responding to questions on genome editing technology in a telephone interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday.

He said: “Since Africa is naturally agrarian, the opportunity this technology offers should be utilised.

“This is by adding value to the available rich natural resources through innovation, in order to improve the livelihood of the citizenries.”

Akinbo noted that many African governments had strong policies for innovation as a milestone that would improve the economy as well as create enabling environment to support innovative ideas.

“I’m talking about innovation in technology, agriculture, petrochemical among others because innovation is the pathway that many African countries have now taken in trying to improve the lives of citizens.

“A case in point are countries that have established ministries and parastatals that focus specifically on innovation and some of these ministries have added innovation to the name of the ministry.

“That shows government’s commitment to innovation and in most of the AU decision process, there have been decisions that support innovations for the improvement of livelihoods,’’ Akinbo said.

The AU Official stated: “African countries also commit some percentages of national budgets to support innovation but in this context, nothing is too much as there is always scarcity of resources.

“Governments have been making efforts to ensure that they are part of the agenda, as well as creating enabling environments to enhance innovation.

“Nigeria is an example, Nigeria is a leader and we witnessed how the Ministry of Science and Technology was changed to Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, indicating that the government supports innovation.

“There are also many start-ups in Nigeria these days and Nigeria is actually a leader in so many things in Africa especially in the area of innovation and creating enabling environment”.

According to him, out of the 55 member states in Africa, South Africa had taken advantage of innovative way of breeding plants.

Akinbo listed other countries that had also moved in this direction to include: Ethiopia, Malawi and Eswatini, who had all adopted biotechnology crops.

He said Kenya had not only adopted biotechnology crops but had also established research institute that focuses on biotechnology.

The AU Official recalled that Nigeria had adopted two biotechnology crops, both for feed and food while others were in the pipeline.

He said: “Looking at this, for a government to have approved these biotech crops is indicative of its willingness and even establishing an agency that sees about safety.’’