The programme will be financed from the BoI’s N5 billion Cottage Agro Processing Fund.
According to BoI, in a statement it issued, the accreditation was part of a strategy to link centres of innovation with industry, adding that the bank paid a similar visit to the Federal Institute of Industrial Research (FIIRO), Oshodi, Lagos.
The Managing Director of BoI, Rasheed Olaoluwa, who disclosed this during his visit to the Institute in Enugu said: “We have been to FIIRO and now at PRODA. I think you should watch out for more. Nigeria in the past had invested significantly in a lot of research institutes that have done a lot of work and we need to ensure that those works are commercialised and leveraged by the private sector to ensure that we fast-track Nigeria’s industrialisation.
Olaoluwa, who was conducted round the facilities of the Institute by the Acting Director-General of PRODA, Dr. Charles Agulanna, added: “To my greatest surprise, I discovered this afternoon that PRODA just like FIIRO has also developed a number of technologies over the years and in addition to discussing in theory we actually went to the workshop and we looked at some of those technologies and we actually saw people coming here to take those technologies to set-up businesses in many parts of Nigeria.”
