The Political Economy Aspect of Technology Transfer And Development In Nigeria

Nigeria is well known for its propensity to import foreign technology, sophisticated equipments and machineries that costs billions of Naira and are constantly breaking down as a result of poor maintenance and lack of spare parts. Although Nigeria spent heavily on importation of foreign technologies, it lacked the infrastructural facilities for scientific and technological advancement. This study utilized secondary data to explain the role of technology transfer in Nigeria's development process. The main objective of the paper is to study the methods of technology transfer and their challenges with a view to mapping out strategy to reduce Nigeria's over dependence on foreign technology and to facilitate its technological development. The paper adopts the political economy approach as its tool of analysis in an attempt to explain Nigeria's technological dependence in the global economy. The paper posits that Nigeria cannot achieve technological development with total dependence on foreign technology. In fact its continued reliance on imported technology would only further its incorporation into the world capitalist system. The paper concludes that the strategy of technology transfer cannot lead to a meaningful development and self-reliance in any nation and that Nigeria must resort to the strategy of appropriate technology which has both the potential capacities to revolutionize Nigeria’s industrial sector and the impetus for future technological advancement of the country.