By Emmanuel Elebeke

The newly deployed Permanent Secretary to the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology, Mrs. Winifred Oyo-Ita, has underscored the importance of electronic data and urged all the parastatals in the ministry to leverage the opportunity provided by modern technology to convert all their relevant records into electronic form.

Mrs. Oyo-Ita made the call during an official facility tour at the National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion, NOTAP office in Abuja at the weekend.

She said it is unacceptable to see a government agency still keeping data in hard copies, which places such organization at the risk of losing all their relevant and valuable data and information.

For her, any serious agency cannot afford to ignore the electronic data management system in the 21st century, which makes information retrieval easy and less cumbersome.

She declared the Ministry’s readiness to ensuring that NOTAP was digitized to be able to pursue its mandate with more vigour and reliable data.

“I want to see more development in terms of electronic data management system here because it has been piles and piles of valuable records here that are still in hard copies, which they cannot continue keeping this records in the 21st Century, we have to get digital information system, that will be easy to be retrievable. Apart from that, when data are converted into electronic form, they will be safe from fire outbreak, lost and all that. So, I will like to see more effort done as regards that in all the federal government parastatals.” she said.

She urged NOTAP to work more closely with other agencies in the ministry on technology transfer and to guide them, especially in the areas of relevance industrial based research.

She equally urged the agency to monitor how all research products are being used and protected in the country by way of patent and licensing.

“What I want more now, is for NOTAP to work more closely with other agencies of Science and Technology, to guide the agencies, especially in the areas of relevance, industrial based research and also monitor how these research products are being used and protected in the country by way of patent and licensing,”.

While warning NOTAP to avoid huge capital outflow from technology transfer, she however, charged the agency to adopt an acceptable standards in  controlling how technology is moving in and out of the country, and stressed the need for inter agency corporation on technology transfer between all the operating agencies in the country and the regulator.

Earlier in his remarks, the Director General of NOTAP, Dr. Umar Bindir said NOTAP was ready for the digitization project, adding that discussions were already ongoing with the Galaxy Backbone for the actualisation of the plan.

When completed, he said the digitised library, would aid the agency in actualising its mandate of monitoring technology transfer within and out of Nigeria and the technological development of the country.

Bindir, said the main focus of the agency in recent times has been on transferring technology into commercialization.

He decried the low output of telecommunications technology, manufacturing and financial sectors from the university and research institution and promised to address the lapses through proper regulation.