The Chairman, Senate Committee on Science and Technology, Uche Lilian Ekwunife, has commended the Raw Materials Research and Development Council (RMRDC) on its landmark achievements, describing the efforts of the management as “outstanding”.
Ekwunife, in an exclusive interview with journalists, Monday on the recent Council’s meeting with the National Assembly, said the robust and frank interactions revealed a number of innovations and breakthroughs of the governmental agency.
According to her, “As part of its oversight function, the Senate Committee on Science and Technology invited the Council’s Director General and Chief Executive, Professor Hassan Doko Ibrahim, to brief the committee on the activities of RMRDC. On Monday, June 8, 2020, as scheduled, Prof. Ibrahim led the Council’s delegation to the briefing.
“The robust and frank interactions between the Committee and RMRDC were aimed at adding impetus to the Council’s mandate of expediting Nigeria’s industrial development and self-reliance through the optimal utilisation of local raw materials as input to the country’s industrial growth.”
Further responding to questions, the senator said her attention was drawn to the article making the rounds, especially on the social media and a section of the mainstream media on the Director-General’s comment on one of the Council’s research projects aimed at contributing value addition to the food sector of our economy, precisely on kilishi.
“I am reliably informed that the kilishi project is one of the innovations of the Council and designed to upgrade indigenous process technology. It is no longer news that kilishi is fast becoming an international delicacy originating from Nigeria. For the purposes of meeting international food safety standards and acceptability, the Council designed a technology to address the issues of hygiene and proper packaging as well as improving the shelf life of the product.
“I wish to set the records straight to the effect that the articles as well as the videos neither reflected accurately what transpired nor the spirit of the briefing, which I chaired,” she stressed.
Disclosing the activities of the Council, she itemised its achievement of the Council to development of pharmaceutical grade starch from wild yam tuber; development of lovastatin from local mushroom specie to address issues of cholesterol; development of caustic soda and precipitated calcium carbonate for the pharmaceutical, paint, cosmetics and other allied industries; development of anti-fungal and anti-diabetic drug; development of phytomedicine for the treatment of tuberculosis (TB); development of automotive brake pad; development of gypsum scrubber for POP and cement manufacturing; development of flash dryer for high quality cassava flour; development of waterborne paints from the blends of natural rubber latex (NR-L) and polyvinyl acetate (PVAc) as binder and development of ethanol, glucose syrup and cattle feeds from sweet sorghum, and a host of others of which kilishi is only one of them.
