BY FRANKLIN ALLI
Entrepreneurs at Technology Incubation Centres(TIC) across the country have started accessing Federal Government’s N200 billion agricultural funds.

The Minister of Science and Technology, Prof. Mohammed Ka’Oje who disclosed this said.“I am happy to report that our entrepreneurs are benefitting from this scheme: “‘As of today, a total of 56 entrepreneurs (nine from TIC Lagos) have received low interest loans from NERFUND to the tune of Nl17.43 million,” TIC is a collaborative programme of the Federal , State Government and the Private sector.

According to the Minister, in order to further support the commercialialisation of R&D and other innovative efforts, the Ministry through the Presidential Committee on Inventions and Innovations (PSCII) has provided grants to the tune of N189. 258 million  to 45 entrepreneurs across the country.

He explained that out of this number nine deserving entrepreneurs of Technology Incubation Centres (TICs) received N15.195million, stressing that this effort shall continue as soon as more funds are made available to the committee.”

The Minister, who was in Lagos  for the 6th graduation ceremony and certificate presentation to entrepreneurs of the Lagos Technology Incubation Centre, further disclosed that Technology Incubation Centres across the country has  the capacity to generate more than  25,000 jobs every three years.

According to him, since the scheme commenced in 1993 to- date, it has created in excess of 150 technology based enterprises with total net-worth of over 5 billion naira while creating more than 15,000 direct and indirect jobs.

Based on this, he said: “Our conservative estimate is that the programme has the capacity to create over 25,000 jobs every three years cycle.”

He noted that many of the emerging economies such as India, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, to name only a few, have benefitted tremendously from the growth and empowerment of the SME sector using similar concepts as the Technology Incubation Programme.

He stated that owing to the potential of the scheme, the Federal Government through the Board, has accepted the challenges to promote and support the development of this sector through value addition using innovation and technology that responds to the need of the host community and the nation at large.

In his own submission, Director General/CEO National Board for Technology Incubation (NBTI), Prof. Gambo Laraba Abdullahi , lauded Lagos State  Governor , Babatunde Raji Fashola, for promoting the development of value-added technology-based Small and Medium  Enterprises(SMEs) in the State.

According to him, Lagos TIC has been pacesetter to all other TICs in the country.
“The Centre has graduated 80 enterprises with total net-worth of over N1.6 billion and creating over 2,110 direct jobs. This result could not have been attained without the strong commitment, support and contributions of the Lagos State Government to the programme.

“On behalf of the Federal Ministry of Science Technology, and NBTI, let me particularly commend the efforts of the Governor of Lagos State, Babtunde Raji Fashola, for his unwavering support to the center, he said.