‘No synergy between researches and industry’

Members of Polymer Institute of Nigeria, PIN, have expressed worries that although a lot of researches were going on in the nation's universities and research institutes, "there is no synergy between these institutions and the industry."

In a communique at the end of the 26th Annual Technical Conference and Annual General Meeting of the Institute held in Owerri, by the Communique Drafting Chairman, Professor Peter Nkeonye, of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, said "Many research findings on the shelves of our higher institutions have not been commercialized due to low level of entrepreneu-rship among researchers.

"The conference is aware of the recent introduction of entrepreneurship programmes in our tertiary institutions, but recomme- nds that enabling environ- ment (teaching aids) should be provided to make the programmes more realistic and result-oriented."

Saying that such interaction was necessary for the technological economic development of the nation and should be encouraged, it recalled that "The textile industry is a major consumer of polymeric materials, and at one point was the second largest employer of labour after government in Nigeria."

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