The National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI), said it has secured a $200 million procurement agreement with the Rural Electrification Agency (REA) to produce equipment needed by the agency.
The Executive Vice Chairman of the Agency, Mr. Khalil Suleiman Halilu, disclosed this on Thursday, November 2, 2023, during his maiden television media interaction held at the Agency’s headquarters in Abuja.
The excerpt of the interview was released via a statement signed by the Agency’s Director of Information, Olusegun Ayeoyenikan.
- Halilu noted that NASENI under him has rigorously been involved in lots of stakeholder engagements with many organizations showing interest in its activities for collaboration and product offtake. “One of such partner was the Rural Electrification Agency (REA), which had committed itself to a whopping $200 million procurement agreement with NASENI as long as our agency could produce the kind of products they consume,” he said.
Halilu, who was recently appointed by President Bola Tinubu said his vision for the Agency’s products and technologies is to make them available in every household in Nigeria in the next few years.
NASENI products coming to market
While noting that expectations from stakeholders of NASENI are very high as its activities must ensure transparency and focus to assist the Agency in delivering on its mandate, Halilu disclosed that some tangible products emanating from NASENI’s prototypes will be in the market through technology transfer arrangements, specifically, by 1st quarter of the year 2024.
- “Expect some products from NASENI’s R&D efforts in the Nigeria market during the first quarter of 2024.
- “We are going to do a national re-branding to have footsteps of NASENI products in every household in the country. In the next few years, this is what Nigerians should expect. We are no longer going to sit back to watch endless research and prototypes, keeping them on the shelves.
- “We will take them to the market so that Nigerians can consume them. In fact, one of our next year plans is to have NASENI Showrooms in key cities of the country.
- “So NASENI products are not things you view only on televisions but anyone could walk into our product outlets to experience those technologies that we’ve been talking about. And that is another way we will be expecting the public to hold us accountable as part of the promises we made,” he said.
According to him, part of his preoccupations since assuming office in September is to give adequate attention to enhance the human capital potential of the Agency through improved motivation for staff to enable them to adjust to the transformations to be introduced in the system.
Also, he said stakeholders’ engagements and efforts to rebrand the Agency around its products and technologies have remained top priorities.
Investments from China
While recalling a recent trip to China by the top management of the Agency, led by the EVC/CEO himself, Halilu said:
- “We just came back from China with the Vice President from the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) Forum where we signed a $2 billion dollar partnership MOU for technology transfer into Nigeria which is something we were able to achieve in just five weeks of operations. At the same forum, we received a lot of partners that provided letters of Intent to partner with us, to invest in the country’s economy amounting to $4 billion.”
The EVC said NASENI’s China trip has the potential to yield about $6 billion in foreign direct investment (FDI) to Nigeria.
The areas that the agency received interest in were Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), Electric Vehicles (EVs), Agricultural equipment, Electronics and Electrical equipment and many others.
