ire especially
nitiating and
imulator and
essrs J. Kure
age.
nal 1982-2.
and mapping
m Education
nal 1982—2.
| (MES); An
, Department
"nal 1981-3. |
; professional
CLOSE CO-OPERATION BETWEEN THE PRIVATE SECTOR AND THE
GOVERNMENT IN SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
8y
H. H. Prince A. A, Shonekan
Earth Resources Satellite Systems
(Nigeria) Limited
P. O Box 401, Lagos.
It is a matter of great pleasure and refreshing assurance that at this stage of our National deve-
lopment, deep and sincerethought is being given to the formulation of a policy directed towards
harnessing and improving our scientific and technological approach in the process of nation build-
ing. We in the private sector have looked on helplessly towards involvement in this area, we
must assume the role of leadership in conquering this onerous but richly rewarding venture We
no doubt fully appreciate the concern over the present state of our economy and even if our oil
resources had not fallen, we have always believed that many sources of income into the Nation's
coffers is not enough to transform our dreams of building a truly great country into reality.
The question that comes to mind in discussing the role of science and technology in a Nation's
development is obviously how it can be done, There is no doubt that there is a dearth of informa-
tion in the Nigerian perspective on this question but a useful approach would be to commence
with available materials and with the aid of other developed systems, to build on the little we
have,
Perhaps the most notable and direct area of the influence of science and technology in Na-
tional development, is the use of scientific methods to discover, exploit and defend the strategic
minerals and natural resources which lie beneath the earth's surface. So directly beneficial is
this approach that those countries which have abundant food, minerals etc, owe this to the use of
scientific methods to discover these resources. The list of such countries is unending but our
concern here is the role of the Private Sector in advancing this government initiative and the ex-
tent to which both arms can co-operate to achieve the desired goal.
Before we enumerate the responsibilities of both sectors in this direction, we wish to show
our sincere appreciation to the Federal Military Government of Nigeria and The Nigerian Socie-
ty for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing for initiating and arranging this conference, and for
also inviting the Private Sector to participate in what may be termed a collective effort towards
nation building Our appreciation is strengthened by the fact that the U.S. Government in
pursuing a programme such as we ‘are now undertaking, realised the importance of private sector
involvement and set up a task force co-chaired by the National Aeronautics and Space Agency
(NASA) and the Department of Commerce to increase the involvement of the private sector in
the development of systems used in the discovery and exploitation of the Natural resources
that abound in that country. A plan of action was to be the result of this integration and such
plan was to be submitted to a Space Policy Review Committee for consideration and action. The
views of interested members qf the Private Sector were solicited as to incentives required from the
Federal Government, to attract greater private participation and investment in this field, desirable
institutional and corporate arrangement; desirable and undesirable government regulations;
estimates of the private involvement deemed necessary for the level of involvement envisaged and
the availability of investment capital, consideration of possible foreign competition and its
efforts and a time frame in which private participation is considered feasible.
THE EARTH RESOURCE SATELLITE SYSTEMS NIGERIA LIMITED:
This is perhaps one of the very few existing private companies with the main objective of re-
searching, discovering, exploiting and defending the resources of the Earth by the use of Remote
Sensing techniques.
