To sustain Nigeria’s indus-trial development, there is need to adequately fund the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI), by allocating three per cent of Federal Government’s yearly income to it, the Director-General of the agency, Mohammed Haruna, has said.

Haruna said over the weekend, when he visited the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), that Nigerians would derive a lot of benefit from well-funded NASENI.

He particularly called for a special funding for the agency, in order to achieve its targets.

“For example, our Power Equipment and Electrical Machinery Development Institute (PEEMADI) gets requests for components and backups needed in the power infrastructure industry through local manufacturing.

“However, PEEMADI was given only N23 million in 2012 Appropriation Act. How can such meager amount support the power industry in Nigeria? Until local industries and manufacturing companies like NASENI get involved in local manufacturing of power generating equipment, we will never have adequate power supply in the country,” he said.

The two organisations have, however, agreed to work together for the promotion of indigenous technologies, especially in the areas of technology transfer and manufacturing of local engineering equipment for industries within and outside Nigeria.

Haruna said his agency was the only organisation set up by government to ensure full industrialisation of the country through its engagement in local mass production of standard parts, capital goods and services required for the nation’s technology advancement.

According to him, the agency was established because of the need to develop the country in the area of science, engineering and technology on the one hand and push for economic and industrial development of the country on the other hand.

The NASENI chief urged the organised private sector, entrepreneurs and industrialists to take advantage of prototype industrial equipment that had already been produced by the agency and help in mass producing them for the development of the nation’s economy, stressing that unless Nigeria begins to make use of locally produced tools, spare parts, goods and services, which NASENI is already doing, technology transfer would always remain a mirage in production activities.