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Why 60% multinational firms don’t register imported technology – Bindir

By on January 26, 2015

The National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP), an agency under the Ministry of Science and Technology, has disclosed that more than 60 per cent of multinational companies operating in the country don’t register the foreign technology they import into Nigeria because of the liberalisation policy introduced by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) into the nation’s banking system.

NOTAP’s Director General, Engr. Umar Buba Bindir, made the disclosure at the weekend in Abuja when he hosted the Managing Director of Bank of Industry (BOI), Mr. Olaoluwa Rasheed, and its top management staff members.

The DG said: “When CBN used to have the total control of foreign exchange it was easy for NOTAP to effectively control the registration of foreign technology being imported into the country. The Ministry has laid down rules and regulations before foreign technologies are dumped into the country. This is done to encourage the domestication and growth of local technology.

“But with the involvement of commercial banks, I can tell you that up to the region of 60 per cent of companies importing technology into Nigeria don’t register with NOTAP”. The implication of the development, according to him, is that the country loses a lot of foreign exchange, which runs into billions of naira.”

While acknowledging the benefits of registering incoming or outgoing technology with NOTAP, the DG said: “For enforcement purposes, we went to CBN and said to them that approval is linked to capital flight and if we approve automatically and it is known and their remittances will even  becomes tax free.

 

[ThisDay]