FG to spend 0.5% of GDP on tech, innovation – Minister

The federal government will spend 0.5 per cent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on science, technology and innovation in order to promote creativity among the youths and create jobs, the Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation, Dr Ogbonnaya Onu, has said.

Onu said this at the Consultative Meeting on the provision of a minimum of 0.5% of GDP for Funding Science, Technology and Innovation Sectors in the country in Abuja, on Wednesday.

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Daily Trust reports that the government had declared at the 2021 edition of the Annual Science Technology and Innovation (STI) Expo that half of one per cent of the country’s GDP will be channelled towards the development of STI to ensure continuous productivity and sustainability in the country.

The minister stated that countries that have made giant strides in sustaining their economies invested heavily in STI sectors which guaranteed their continuous growth as well sustained their industrial development.

According to the minister, the decision to increase the nation’s STI funding was taken at the African Union’s executive council in 2006 to establish a target for all member states to allocate 1% of their GDP investment each in research and development.

The meeting, he added, offered the opportunity to work out strategies for attaining the implementation of 0.5% of GDP to the STI sector.

Earlier, the Minister of State, Barr. Mohammed H. Abdullahi, said STI and its integration in the socio-economic development process must be accorded the highest priority through adequate funding in the R&D sector.