THE Raw Materials Research and Development Council (RMRDC) has advised entrepreneurs to approach non-commercial banks for loans that would enable them start their Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) using indigenous technology. Prof. Peter Onwualu, the director general, said this at the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) forum on Wednesday in Abuja. He said that the council had funded a lot of research works with results yet to be fully integrated to businesses. Onwualu observed that many Nigerians had been contacting the council on how to apply those technologies for commercial purpose but lacked the required funds to acquire the needed machines to execute such projects. He noted that most entrepreneurs shy away from approaching non-commercial banks such as the Bank of Industry, the Nigeria Import and Import Bank, to acquire soft loans that could assist them to start SMEs.Onwualu added that any interested investor or entrepreneur that approached these banks with good proposal would be granted the required loans. 'And unknown to this entrepreneurs they can actually approach Bank of Industry and say I have this technology that raw materials have developed and I want to use it to produce a product but I don't have the funding. 'And Bank of Industry will say, send in a proposal and if it meets their criteria and they checked and see that that technology can actually produce something. 'From what I hear and what I see, they can actually give entrepreneurs loans at an interest that is not as high as what you can find in commercial banks and they can begin to produce. 'That is one way I believe that these technologies can leave our laboratories so that we can concentrate on doing more research, while business men can pick up these technologies.' Some of these technologies, according to him, included clothes driers, salt driers as well technology applications such as cassava processing, sesame processing, moringa products for water treatment and production of break-pads from natural resources. The director general expressed dismay that long range of these results was yet to be commercialised. 'I must say that a number of our research results have actually been utilised in the economy, but I must also say that I am not yet satisfied. I will be satisfied when we get to a point where we have over 100 of our research results being used by industries. 'Over the years we have 100 of these projects, but this year alone (last year) we have completed about 22 or 23, and these are things that can hit the market, we want to hit the market. 'We have funded researches that have come up with upgraded technologies, when I say up graded technologies, it means looking at how our people do it now, injecting little bits of technology and coming up with process that you can find the machine locally. 'So we have quite a number of these technologies that have not hit the market.'He noted that RMRDC, within its mandates, was also giving grants and technical assistance to investors who were interested in promoting its research results, to ensure that they were fully commercialised. He, however, stressed the need for private and corporate investors to take up these technologies as grants from the council. 'All over the country we are also giving grants to assist SMEs to start their own businesses but as a research organisation and government organisation, we can only assist to certain level.' He also said that the council had also provided a documented technology profiles from its visibility studies on cottage level of investment opportunities in Nigeria, for interested investors to be well informed on existing technologies within the country.
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