The National Office for Technology Acquisition, NOTAP was established in 1979 as an agency to register industrial property in Nigeria and ensure that it contributes to the process of narrowing the gap between Nigerian academia and industry before they can go international. In this interview, Director General of the agency, Dr. Umar Bindir bared his mind on some of activities of the agency and challenges facing the industry. Excerpts.

After competing with 11 teams from other tertiary institutions around the country at the Nigeria challenge finals held last week in Lagos, four software incubators from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ilefe, (OAU) and Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, (Lautech) Ogbomoso, Oyo respectively will fly Nigerian flag this summer in St Petersburg, Russia this summer at the worldwide finals.

Apparently trying to plug the loss in revenue from local internet contents hoisted outside the country, the Internet Exchange Point of Nigeria, IXPN and its counterpart, the Nigeria Internet Registration Association, NIRA have caused a two day stakeholders forum tagged Local Internet Content Forum, LICF, to arrest the ugly trend.

At the just concluded business technology summit held in Uganda, Computer Warehouse Group (CWG) in collaboration with IBM and Infosys have introduced IT transformation solutions for the financial services sector in East Africa.

The new Permanent Secretary to the Communications Technology Ministry, Dr Henry Akpan last week, regretted why government has not properly harnessed facilities at the Nigeria Communications Satellite Company Ltd, NigComSat for nation building.