By Emmanuel Elebeke

The Director General and CEO, National Board for Technology Incubation, NBTI, Engr.Mohammed Jibrin has expressed the need for the establishment of Technology Incubation Parks, TICs, in the 36 states of the federation.

Jibrin while appraising the activities of  the agency in Abuja, said the states having TICs would not only take idle youths out of the streets but help in developing local technology and incubation.

He also expressed the need for commercialization and increment of essential oil and hydrosol production in an effort to scale up research and development in the country.

As part of its efforts to fulfill its mandate, the NBTI boss said the Board had established new TICs in Nasarawa, Benue, Ebonyi, Gombe, Katsina, Jigawa and Kogi states in line with the Council’s resolutions of 2013.

He noted that the respective state governments were to ensure best practices of the Technology Incubation Programme, TIP objectives in the Centres.

Jibrin further announced that NBTI had launched the indigenous products supermarkets and purchased hi-tech equipment for precision and quality assurance in the TICs, noting that the Board was strongly building capacities of both staff and interested persons for the successful implementation of the TIP.

According to him, the National Board for Technology Incubation, NBTI participated fully at the 2014 National Council on Science and Technology which held in Minna, Niger State to present its scorecard of accomplishments in fulfillment of its mandate to bolster the growth of the country’s economy, and also staged an exhibition of products of its Technology Incubation Centres (TICs).