By Franklin Alli

The Managing Director Bank of Industry (BoI) has called for the adoption of Reverse Engineering by our local scientists and engineers in order to move the country forward technologically, asserting “Technology transfer is not going to work.”

Mr. Rasheed Olaoluwa, the Managing Director made the call when he hosted a delegation from the Nigerian Academy of Engineers led by its President, Prof. Raifu Salawu.

He hailed the Engineers for their contributions to the economy over the decades and also expressed the bank’s readiness to work with local engineers in our research centres, universities and industries to move the country forward technologically.

“When I look at our research institutes, I tell myself we have a long way to go. We try to pursue technology transfers but the reality is that technology has not been transferred. The reality is that, no countries will voluntary transfer their technology to you.

“The other day, I went to see a customer and he was telling us how he got the technology. I asked him, how did you manage to get this machine? I know it is very strategic, I know that most countries don’t like to release that and he told me the secret. He got a friendly Chinese to acquire the technology and sent it onward to him because he has made an attempt to get it directly and he failed.

“So, technology transfer is not going to work. I think what I would like to recommend is Reverse Engineering. Reverse Engineering is when you see something that has been made somewhere and you disassemble it and by so doing gain some insights into how it was done originally and you can then create your own technology.

He told the Engineers that the bank has structured its operation in order to support the three broad dimensions of commodity –based industrialisation and development of indigenous technology.

“We are very passionate about technology in BoI and we are trying to put in our best to make an impact on the Nigerian society knowing that there is correlation between development and technology.

“We have observed what is going on in the rest of the world. They are going at a very rapid pace; there is so much that is happening: there is artificial intelligence, there is robotics; according to Carnegie Mellon robotic institute in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States the third generation robots will have intelligence equal to that of a monkey by 2030 which is just a few years and that the intelligence of robots will equate that of a humans by 2050.

“Now, imagine if a nation can solely develop a million robots that can operates like humans; it is going to change the dynamics of the world. So these are the kind of things that give us serious food for thoughts.

“So, we don’t need to wait until we have become so backward. I think we need to begin to find ways in which we can close the gap. We have the Atlantic Ocean there but there is scarcity of water in Lagos. 40 percent of the domestic water use in Israel is from the ocean. It is purified through desalination.

“As a country, are we thinking about the future scenarios,. There is internet of things. Before, we used to have hardware but now we have an integration of hardware and software.

“An analogue phone was integrated with soft phone and it became Smartphone; analogue television was integrated with soft television and we now have smart TVs. Analogue billboard has been integrated with soft billboard and we now have smart billboards. You can change anything you want to display on it within in a minute.”