Nigeria must urgently turn its vast research output into market-ready products if it hopes to create jobs, deepen local manufacturing and grow the economy, the Executive Secretary of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund, Sonny Echono, has said.
Echono spoke in Abuja while inaugurating the committee for the 2026 National Research Fair and Exhibition, which TETFund is repositioning as the country’s leading marketplace for innovation. He said Nigerian universities, polytechnics and research institutes are generating valuable knowledge that too often ends on library shelves instead of factory floors.
According to him, the revamped fair will serve as a bridge between laboratories and industry by bringing together researchers, inventors, entrepreneurs, investors and policymakers to commercialise home-grown technologies.
“Nigeria is richly endowed with intellectual assets. Our ability to harness these and deploy them to activate the various sectors of our economy, promote local manufacturing, create jobs and generate wealth across value chains will put us on the right path to achieving greatness,” he said.
Echono explained that the decision to expand the 2026 edition followed the success of the maiden fair, which showcased research breakthroughs from tertiary institutions and led to several innovations entering the Nigerian market. He said the spin-offs from that event demonstrated the potential of research commercialisation to stimulate employment.
To deepen impact, the reconstituted committee now includes representatives of the organised private sector, innovation hubs, relevant ministries, the military, the Association of Nigerian Inventors, community inventors and other stakeholders. Their mandate is to identify, collate and showcase proven research and development outputs while creating opportunities for researchers to meet angel investors, venture capitalists, intellectual property experts and technology licensing professionals.
Echono added that TETFund will compile a national database of research outputs from universities, polytechnics, colleges of education and research institutes, from which technologies will be selected for exhibition. The 2026 fair will also feature an international conference expected to attract participants from across Africa and beyond.
In a bid to make the platform truly national, entries will no longer be restricted to TETFund beneficiary institutions. “Any Nigerian who has developed a product, a service or any kind of invention is expected to apply,” Echono said, urging participants from the maiden edition to return with improved technologies and new products.
Committee chairman, Umar Bindir, welcomed the broadened membership and pledged to deliver an exhibition that firmly links research to industry, saying the team would “do everything possible” to achieve TETFund’s commercialisation goals.
