Current Status of Biotechnology Manpower Development in Nigeria

Biotechnology is a fast-growing and knowledge-driven technology that influences a wide range of industrial sectors, and the training of a competent workforce to drive the development and application of this technology is of fundamental importance. Emerging as a discipline in the late 1970s, biotechnology received great professional attention in Nigeria at the beginning of the 1980s with the formation of the Biotechnology Society of Nigeria. In recognition of the pivotal role of biotechnology to national development, the Nigerian government first articulated a National Master Plan for biotechnology development in the early 1990s with further efforts leading to the approval of the National Biotechnology Policy in 2001 and the eventual establishment of the National Biotechnology Development Agency (NABDA). There is a strong biotechnology education in Nigeria at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels. From the early 2000s, B.Sc. (or B.Tech.) biotechnology degree programmes emerged in Nigeria with several universities currently involved in undergraduate biotechnology programmes. In the past 20 years, the accelerated human resource development for biotechnology in Nigeria enabled the training and development of researchers and students at the postgraduate level within Nigeria. Almost all the universities in Nigeria (including those that are presently not offering undergraduate degrees in biotechnology) offer postgraduate training in biotechnology at the various relevant Departments of the Faculties of Science/Biological Sciences, Agriculture and Forestry, Medical Sciences, Pharmaceutical and Health Sciences, Environmental Sciences, etc. Research institutes also complement the training role of the universities by offering opportunities for students’ bench work. Capacity building workshops are also an important component of informal biotechnology education opportunities especially for researchers in Nigeria. There is need for government to offer more incentives to drive biotechnology education in Nigeria, with more funding provided at all levels but especially at the postgraduate level. It is further necessary to develop strategies towards fostering university–industry partnership to enhance biotechnology deliverables in Nigeria