Reps advance a National Research and Innovation Fund to boost research financing, support innovation and commercialise Nigerian discoveries
The House of Representatives has begun moves to establish a National Research and Innovation Development Fund aimed at addressing funding gaps, strengthening research capacity and promoting the commercialisation of locally developed innovations.
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The proposed legislation also seeks to create a National Council on Research and Innovation to coordinate research activities, support scientific discoveries and help transform research findings into marketable products and services.
Speaker of the House, Tajudeen Abbas, disclosed this on Thursday during a public hearing organised by the House Committee on Science and Technology on the National Research and Innovation Development Fund and National Council on Research and Innovation Bill, 2026, at the National Assembly in Abuja.
Represented by the Deputy House Leader, Abubakar Halims, Abbas said Nigeria could no longer afford to rely excessively on imported technologies and solutions to problems that its citizens had the intellectual capacity to solve.
He noted that despite the country’s pool of talented researchers, innovative young people and skilled entrepreneurs, the absence of an effective system connecting research with funding and industry had continued to limit the economic benefits of their work.
According to the Speaker, research activities in Nigeria frequently end with academic publications, while promising innovations struggle to secure funding and potentially valuable discoveries fail to progress beyond the laboratory.
“The challenge, therefore, is not simply to produce more research, but to build an ecosystem that connects research to funding, innovation to investment, and discoveries to industry,” Abbas said.
He described the public hearing as an opportunity to examine the proposed legislation thoroughly and ensure that its provisions adequately addressed the country’s research and innovation challenges.
“The objective is not simply to defend the Bill as drafted, but to produce legislation that can fulfil its intended purpose,” he added.
Earlier, the Chairman of the House Committee on Science and Technology, Zakariya Zannah, said Nigeria possessed the human resources and intellectual capacity to drive research and innovation but lacked a dependable legal and institutional framework for financing, coordinating and commercialising research findings.
He explained that the proposed legislation was designed to bridge the gap between laboratory discoveries and their practical application in the marketplace.
Zannah urged stakeholders to scrutinise five major areas of the bill: governance and institutional structure, funding sources, grant administration and commercialisation, accountability mechanisms, and possible implementation gaps.
On financing, he drew attention to the proposed 20 per cent contribution from the Nigerian Content Development Fund under Section 19 of the bill, alongside government appropriations, grants and income generated through commercialisation.
He also highlighted the proposed limit of 2.5 per cent on administrative expenditure under Section 21, asking stakeholders to examine its legal basis, adequacy and long-term sustainability.
Regarding grant administration, the committee chairman called for scrutiny of the competitive, peer-reviewed funding process outlined in Section 34 and the intellectual property provisions contained in Section 37.
He further urged participants to examine proposed offences, penalties and legal proceedings to ensure that public resources would be protected without creating unnecessary obstacles for legitimate research activities.
Zannah encouraged stakeholders to submit specific, evidence-based recommendations, identify areas requiring clearer drafting and propose alternative provisions where necessary.
“Let us give Nigeria a Fund and a Council that are well governed, sustainably financed and focused on turning research into jobs, products and prosperity,” he said.
The proposed fund comes amid longstanding concerns about inadequate research financing, weak collaboration between universities and industry, and the limited commercialisation of technologies developed locally.
The public hearing brought together representatives of government, academia, research institutions, the private sector and the wider scientific and innovation community to examine the proposed framework.
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If enacted and effectively implemented, the legislation could provide a more coordinated funding and institutional structure for Nigerian research, while creating opportunities to translate scientific discoveries into commercial ventures, jobs and economic growth.
