If everything works out according to the plan of the federal government, the country will achieve a reduction in the importation of food items by 50 percent in the near future. This is part of the mandate given to a committee inaugurated Thursday by Vice President Kashim Shettima. It is an inter-ministerial committee on research and innovation, which is tasked with transforming Nigeria into an innovation-driven trillion-dollar economy within the next decade.
Speaking at the Presidential Villa in Abuja on Thursday, Shettima said the committee would coordinate action across five strategic sectors: Agriculture and Climate Resilience, Manufacturing Excellence, Healthcare Innovation, Natural Resource Optimization, and Energy Security.
The vice president said, “We are here to breathe life not into this Committee, but into a bold mission: to build Nigeria into an innovation-driven, trillion-dollar economy within a decade. The future we desire is not something we inherit. It is something we build.”
According to Shettima, the committee is part of the Tinubu administration’s efforts to pool intellectual and financial capital to create “the cockpit from which Nigeria’s innovation economy will be piloted.” He stressed that innovation is the currency of every civilization and that no society grows by staying the same.
The committee, the VP said, will pursue missions rather than metrics in each strategic sector.
He said, “None of this is possible without research—the mother of all the inventions that have guided humanity through the waves of the Industrial Revolutions. This gathering, therefore, is a declaration of our collective resolve to till the soil, explore the seas, and scout the space of knowledge to understand the consequences of our choices. I am truly inspired by the promise of what we are setting out to achieve here.”
The vice president stressed that a major target for setting up the committee is to reduce Nigeria’s food import bill by 50 per cent, maintaining that “in each of these areas, we will pursue missions, not just metrics.
“We will not be content with data for dashboards—we want deliverables that change lives. What will it take to reduce our food import bill by 50%? How do we triple local pharmaceutical production? Let us align policy, research, and investment to answer these questions and achieve measurable, meaningful outcomes,” he added.
Shettima disclosed that the committee is a prelude to a Presidential Plenary on Innovation approved by President Tinubu, saying the high-level plenary, which will be held annually, will be presided over by the President himself.
“This Committee is only the beginning. His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has approved a Presidential Plenary on Innovation—an annual high-level forum that will bring together academia, research institutes, industry, civil society, and the Nigerian people to align our national innovation priorities.
“This Plenary will be addressed by Mr President himself, because innovation is a presidential area of priority. It is central to his vision for a new Nigeria,” the VP explained.
Earlier, the Minister of Innovation, Science, and Technology, Mr Uche Nnaji, who commended the leadership provided by the Vice President and the commitment of the relevant ministries, departments and agencies, noted that collaboration was critical in the renewed vigour to prioritise research and innovation.
The minister said the inter-ministerial committee would help the country save scarce resources and move faster in the right direction, by harmonising efforts, human and material resources for the purpose of enhancing research and innovation across critical sectors of the economy.
“The keyword here is collaboration. We have been spending a lot of money on our various ministries, duplicating our functions. I believe that with this collaboration and this committee here, we will save a lot of money for the government and reduce duplication,” the Minister said.
Also present at the inauguration were the ministers of Agriculture and Food Security, Sen. Abubakar Kyari; Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy, Mr Bosun Tijani; Alhaji Balarabe Lawal; Alhaji Idi Mukhtar and representatives of the Ministers of Education, Budget and Economic Planning, and Foreign Affairs, among other members of the committee.
