Amongst government’s long term interventionist programmes to create wealth and urgently bridge the yawning gap of unemployment and empower the army of unemployed Nigerians and make them self-reliant was at the heart of the establishment of Technology Incubation Centres across the nation.“Technology incubators are specific types of business incubator- a property based venture which provides tangible and intangible services to new technology, based firms, entrepreneurs, and spin-offs of universities and large firms, all with the aim of helping them increase their chances of survival and generate wealth.” The pivotal role Technology Incubation Centers play and its contribution to both technological and economic growth and development of a nation cannot be over emphasised. What the nation stands to gain from utilising the enormous opportunities offered by Technology Incubation centres to free the society from deprivation and shackles of poverty is enormous.
In 1993, the first Technology Incubation Centre (TIC) was born in Agege Lagos, Nigeria. At the moment, there are over twenty seven Technology incubation Centres in Nigeria. They were designed to, “nurture new start-ups in science and technology related businesses; and speed up the commercialisation of Research and Development (R&D) results by effectively linking talents, technology, capital and know-how in order to accelerate the development of new enterprises.” The beauty of technology incubation in advancing the fortunes of a nation was that, “it is a unique and highly flexible combination of business development process, infrastructure and people designed to nurture and grow new and small businesses, products, innovations and entrepreneurs by supporting them through the early stages of development. It is an integrated support programme provided by the Governments, Academic institutions and Private sector, either individually or in partnership with the intention of creating and nurturing of budding value-added and technology- based enterprise.” In a nutshell, it offers a one in a life time opportunity to promote and bring out the innate potentials of budding talents to bear in their personal, family lives and that of the nation. At the last count it was estimated that the number of unemployed Nigerian youth has hit over 40 million. Therefore, the centres are no doubt curative destinations for joblessness, indolence and vices.
According to Dr. Mohammed Jibrin, the Director-General, National Board for Technology Incubation, “Given the support system provided by the centre, the expectation is that companies stand a chance of reaching their goals. At the centres, access to experts across all engineering and management disciplines is easy. The centres have contributed to the promotion of awareness on the essential role of innovation, adding that its programme is helping Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) and entrepreneurs to be innovative. It is fundamental to identify opportunities and the added value small enterprises can bring, by integrating their own skills and developing training programmes to improve enterprise performance, enhance profitability and growth, and offering technology and management support to SMEs and early movers to maximise the value of their ideas.”
While the process begins with the admission of a value-added technology based enterprise into a Technology Incubation Centre (TIC) and ends with graduation after three (3) years of resident incubation, it offers Nigerians the platform to nurture and grow their innate technological potentials in a cost efficient way. At the TIC, shared facilities (working spaces, offices, hands-on management assistance access to finance, networking and exposure to critical business, technical and legal support services that enhance the success of enterprise during incubation) are provided at subsidised rates. At present, National Board for Technology Incubation (NBTI) has twenty- seven (27) Technology Incubation Centres spread across the six geopolitical zones of Nigeria. What are you waiting for? It is high time one grabbed this rare opportunity of self-reliance with both hands. But how easily accessible are these centres and the abundant opportunities they could offer to Nigerians?
NBTI should make itself, the programmes and activities of Technology Incubators handy to Nigerians. The benefits accruable from technology incubation should not be hidden or lost in the hay-sack of NBTI. It is high time the board began nation-wide sensitisation programmes of its responsibilities. A centre of this nature and importance which is fundamental to bridging the yawning unemployment gap in Nigeria should be dotting every nooks and crannies of Nigeria. Only twenty seven incubation centres in the country are far cry from attending to the high rate of unemployment in the nation. Therefore all the 774 local government areas in the country should be considered as beneficiaries of two or even more of this government empowerment programme. The local governments should be the focal point for incubating technology owing to the level of neglect and poverty in that tier of government. The 21st century growth and development no doubt is primarily powered by technology. It should begin from the grass-root.
Government cannot do this alone, therefore, well-to- do individuals in our society are encouraged to establish private incubation centres which can operate with little or no support from government. Our tertiary institutions could also introduce Technology Incubation studies to complement already existing entrepreneurial studies offered in tertiary institutions in Nigeria. The Presidential Standing Committee on Inventions and Innovations (PSCII) and the National Economic Reconstruction fund should be adequately mobilized to be able to meet the demands of their mandates to Nigerians. The utilisation of funds lent to entrepreneurs should be closely monitored while it should be incentivised for the beneficiaries.
It is difficult to strategically place and position a new product or services in the market especially by new entrepreneurs. NBTI should also take the position of a mentor and god-father by assisting new entrepreneurs funded and trained to ensuring visibility of their products in markets in and around Nigeria. The establishment of technology incubation centres was a milestone geared towards positioning Nigeria at the fore front of technological advanced nations. Has the nations attained the desired objectives? Although the nation for sure was not where it was before the introduction of these centres, more needs to be done. In fact, there is no other time the nation should take a critical look at and a bold step towards effective utilisation of technology incubation centres for entrepreneurial growth and development than now.
Written by Sunday Onyemaechi Eze, a Media and Communications Specialist
sunnyeze02@yahoo.com
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