Obiageli Amadiobi, Director-General of the National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP), told reporters that roughly seven out of ten multinational companies operating in Nigeria have now registered their technology transfer agreements.
She revealed the figure while announcing the upcoming NOTAP Technology and Innovation Summit 2025 in Abuja, warning that some firms are still “hiding their technologies,” especially non-physical systems that power production and data handling.
Amadiobi said a number of overseas operators continue to withhold essential technical know-how and back-end tools, in breach of Nigeria’s technology transfer rules.
“We have started seeing results. At least 70 per cent of the companies are now complying. But there are still a few hiding their technologies, and not all technologies are physical. Some are backend systems that we have uncovered through our auditors.”
A technology transfer agreement legally permits a local business or institution to use a foreign company’s proprietary methods, patents, trademarks, manufacturing techniques or software inside Nigeria for commercial purposes.
While gaps remain, Amadiobi said cooperation has improved thanks to coordinated action with the Central Bank of Nigeria, which has tightened oversight on cross-border payments linked to tech services.
“Banks have now been mandated to ensure that no company remits money for technology-related transactions without obtaining a notarised certificate from NOTAP. This collaboration has significantly improved compliance,” she added.
Amadiobi confirmed the summit will take place on November 6–7, 2025, in Lagos under the theme “Harnessing R&D and Innovation Potentials of Nigeria’s STI Ecosystem,” and described the gathering as a focal point for stakeholders across the innovation landscape.
“The summit will serve as a strategic platform to strengthen dialogue and action around innovation policy, technology transfer, intellectual property, and commercialisation,” the DG said. “Our goal is to accelerate the transformation of research and creativity into commercially viable enterprises that drive national development.”
Organisers plan ministerial keynotes, panels on tech transfer and AI readiness, the launch of Project NOVA (Nigeria’s Outsourcing Value Acceleration), workshops on IP and funding, plus showcases, hackathons and investor-startup sessions.
Amadiobi criticised some foreign operators for exploiting Nigeria’s raw materials while relying on foreign R&D instead of establishing domestic labs — citing the palm oil sector as an example. “It is very pathetic,” Amadiobi lamented. She said NOTAP will summon the companies involved and press them to set up local research facilities to cut avoidable foreign exchange outflows.
She reiterated NOTAP’s push to expand the Local Vendor Policy beyond ICT, noting earlier wins in the tech space. “Through the LVP, we have achieved about 90 per cent success in ICT,” she said. “Nigerian developers are now exporting locally built applications, including banking software. We want to replicate that success in other sectors,” she stated.
The summit will also link innovators with finance partners such as the Bank of Industry while NOTAP finalises a support package for registered startups. But Amadiobi stressed that only genuine, original inventions will be spotlighted. “If someone presents us with bottled water branded differently, that’s not innovation, it’s imitation,” she said.
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