Why private sector shuns commercialisation of research findings – NOTAP

Research findings are not being commercialized by the private sector in the country because most of them are not patented, the National Office for Technology Promotion and Acquisition (NOTAP) has said.

NOTAP’s Director General Dr Danazumi Ibrahim, who disclosed this when he presented 20 patent certificates for various findings made by some tertiary institutions and research institutes, added that the private sector were not comfortable investing in the researchers’ findings because their owners failed to patent them.

“The private sector operators do not develop strong interest in commercialising the research findings by Nigeria’s researchers because they do not get patent for them. And Nigeria can’t develop this way”, Dr Ibrahim said.

Instead of making efforts to get their findings patented, researchers here in the country only rush to get them published in journals.

This way, he said, their findings were being exposed in the public, and therefore there was no reason for investors to stake their money in them.

This is why loads of research findings still lie on the shelves at tertiary institutions and research institutes across Nigeria, he said.

He also lamented that over 90% of the Nigerian economy are being run by foreign software because Nigerians have not been able to develop what could go round the economy.