The Director General of the National Research Institute for Chemical Technology NARICT Zaria in Kaduna State, Prof Jeffrey Barminas said that in 2022, Nigeria spent over one billion dollars importing chemicals.
Prof Baminas made this known at the special day of the National Research Institute for Chemical Technology
STI EXPO 2023 going on in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital.
Professor Baminas added that the importation is on the increase due to the high demand for chemicals in
different industries of the federation.
“The little foreign exchange that we have we are still spending a whooping one point four billion dollars in the year 2022, that’s huge, and I believe it is still going to increase because world over, over eight thousand chemicals are produced globally, and those eight thousand chemicals find application in different industries. So it will always be on the rise,” he said.
He stressed that the Nigerian government must take the advantage of the chemical technology to produce different
profiles of chemicals that are instead being imported into the country.
“There must be a deliberate policy that will help us to look inward, use backward integration to see how we
can produce these chemicals and save our foreign exchange”.
He noted that the NARICT bill when passed into law will give the agency the full mandate to fulfill its responsibilities without
any hitches.
The Permanent Secretary, of the Federal Ministry of science, technology and Innovation Mrs. Monilola Udoh also
stressed that the Chemical technology Industry in Nigeria needs to be strengthened to reduce the level of its
importation into the country.
She stated that Nigeria tops the list of countries with the best combination of resources globally.
By Dominica Nwabufo
Curled from Voice of Nigeria online
