Nigeria will keep forfeiting international research funding until the National Assembly passes an executive bill creating a National Research and Innovation Development Fund and a National Council for Research and Innovation. That is the warning delivered in Abuja by Professor Nicholas Ozor, Executive Director of the African Technology Policy Studies Network (ATPS), a body promoting science, technology and innovation as instruments for Africa's development.

The bill reached the National Assembly after the Federal Executive Council approved it in April. Its consideration is still pending. Ozor's argument is straightforward: without a statutory council and a dedicated funding mechanism, Nigeria remains ineligible for programmes that assume such structures exist.

What does Nigeria actually stand to lose?

The most concrete casualty is the Science Granting Councils Initiative, a programme that provides technical and financial assistance to more than 20 African countries. Nigeria is not among the beneficiaries, and Ozor attributes this gap directly to the absence of a dedicated national research council and funding institution.

That absence, he said, has deprived the country of several international research and development opportunities — despite what he described as Nigeria's enormous human and intellectual resources. The claim is plausible on its face; Africa's largest population does not lack researchers. What it lacks, in Ozor's framing, is the institutional plumbing that foreign funders require before they commit money.

Whether the new bodies would immediately unlock those funds is a separate question, and one the professor did not address. Legislation creates capacity on paper; disbursement depends on governance, budgets and credible administration.

What would the new institutions do?

According to Ozor, the proposed council and fund would serve three main functions:

• provide sustainable funding for research and innovation;
• coordinate research activities across the country;
• promote the commercialisation of locally developed innovations.

He said the establishment of these institutions would position Nigeria among countries with structured national mechanisms for financing and coordinating research and innovation development. The commercialisation clause is notable — it signals an intent to move Nigerian research from publications toward products, though no timeline, budget figure or governance model has been disclosed in the public discussion of the bill so far.

What is the legislative state of play?

The Federal Executive Council approved the executive bill in April this year and transmitted it to the National Assembly for consideration. Ozor expressed optimism about the ongoing legislative process, but optimism is not a schedule. He urged the National Assembly to expedite consideration of the bill to ensure its passage and the eventual establishment of the proposed institutions.

For Nigerian researchers, the practical stakes are access. Ozor said the initiative would create opportunities for Nigerian researchers, strengthen the country's innovation capacity and improve its participation in international research and development programmes. Those are promises contingent on passage, implementation and sustained appropriation — each a distinct hurdle the bill's passage alone would not clear.

ATPS, the organisation Ozor leads, promotes the generation, dissemination, utilisation and mastery of science, technology and innovation as critical instruments for Africa's development, environmental sustainability and global inclusion. Its executive director's warning carries the weight of a pan-African policy network that watches how research funding flows across the continent.

What does this change for Nigeria's research sector?

For now, nothing — and that is the point. Until the National Assembly acts, Nigerian researchers remain outside mechanisms like the Science Granting Councils Initiative, and the country's participation in international R&D programmes stays limited by institutional design rather than by talent. If the bill passes, Nigeria gains the structures its more than 20 African counterparts already use to draw technical and financial support. If it stalls, the gap widens.