Ifeanyi IbeNigeria will soon apply genome editing technology to boost productivity and attain food security, according to Prof Abdullahi Mustapha, the Director General of the National Biotechnology Development Agency.
Mustapha said this in Abuja at the commencement of the validation workshop to review the draft of the genome editing national communication and advocacy strategy and action plan.
He said that as soon as the strategy is validated, Nigeria will be ready to implement it.
The programme was held in partnership with the African Union Development Agency, with researchers from various institutes and ministries, farmers, lecturers, civil society and faith-based organisations and regulators like the National Biosafety Management Agency in attendance.
There were also representatives of the National Orientation Agency and the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control.
The organisers emphasised that GEd agricultural products will help to boost agricultural productivity, alleviate poverty, enhance the nutritional value of farm produce, and reduce crops’ vulnerability to pesticides and environmental stress as well as the dependence on fertilizers.
Mustapha noted that the convergence of the stakeholders was to enrich the inputs in the national communication strategy before its adoption.
According to him, “The meeting brought together stakeholders with backgrounds in science, technology and innovation, most especially genome editing, to validate the work that has been done on genome editing in Nigeria. It’s a new technology that has cut across the continent, and if harnessed, will transform the continent in terms of science, technology, and innovation. Nigeria, Ghana Innovators Featured In Bloomberg New Economy 2022 Cohort
“So, we partnered with the AUDA-NEPAD to see how we can make a success of this innovation. We also invited journalists, who are the ears and eyes of society, to join in validating the communication strategy and the roadmap.
“This initiative began in Nigeria in October 2022 and once it is validated, we swing into action and start the implementation. So, this workshop is to examine a critical aspect of GEd for the effective communication of the benefits, risks, and ethical considerations to the Nigerian public.”
Also speaking, the Director-General, NBMA, Dr Agnes Asagbra, said the agency has developed the guidelines, which researchers are expected to follow “and when they do not conform to the guidelines, we will wield the big stick.”
She noted, “We have a Memorandum of Understanding with Customs to ensure that unlicensed GEd products do not make it into Nigeria. So, we have the GEd guidelines that will ensure that GEd products do not impact people’s health and well-being negatively.
“The NBMA Act came into effect in 2015 but was amended in 2019 to include genome editing. With the crop of stakeholders present at this workshop, I have every conviction that at the end, we will come up with a workable action plan on GEd.”
On his part, Prof Olalekan Akinbo who is the Supervisor, Centre of Excellence in Science, Technology and Innovation at AUDA-NEPAD, said there have been high-level policy engagements in all the African countries used for the pilot scheme, including Nigeria, Ghana, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique and Eswatini.
Akinbo noted that it has become necessary for Africa to embrace innovation, given current realities.
According to him, “For the level of acceptance that we have seen when the products are fully in the market, it will not go the route of other technologies that suffered from bias. We say in our centre that innovation today is tomorrow’s prosperity, and until our policymakers identify the benefits of an initiative, they may not be committed. However, once they see that this innovation improves the livelihood of people, they will fund it.
“The mandate of the centres of excellence is to drive the implementation of Agenda 2063, which has the slogan, ‘The Africa we want’. Africa is tired of policies without implementation.
“The mandate is that by 2063, we should have a policy document that translates to implementation, which is our Chief Executive Officer travelled all over the world to speak about the agenda, and what we are doing now is one of the pillars.”
He further noted that many scientists were doing a lot of work in the laboratories, but that their findings and expected outcomes had to be properly communicated to the regulators and final consumers.
“Our mandate is to look for home-grown solutions to our problems, drive innovation to commercialisation and effectively harness innovation and emerging technologies in addressing the problems,” Akinbo said.
He added that due to the way the competing need for land has limited access to land for farming, it is expedient to embrace innovation in agriculture to make the best use of available land.
Also, the Director-General, Sheda Science and Technology Complex, Prof Paul Onyenekwe, said all the stakeholders across the value chain should be carried along for the initiative to maximise its success.
“Let the press, traditional rulers, environmentalists and others understand our language. That was one of the bane of genetically modified organic products. I believe it is a very important task to prepare the roadmap for communication, and I believe that in the end, Nigeria will be better for it.”
The anchor of the event and director at NABDA, Dr Shakirat Ajenifujah-Solebo, warned that Nigeria will be left behind if it fails to innovate and embrace technology.
Follow Us