TheCable

Ogbonnaya Onu, minister of science and technology, says Nigeria’s economy is moving from being commodity-dependent to being knowledge and innovation based.

Onu spoke at the 2019 maiden musical festival and award night of the Caleb group of schools and university.

“We are moving our economy away from a commodity-based one to make sure that it no longer depends entirely on this but on knowledge and innovation,” he said.

“This is a very important transition and will need the very best in the nation for it to happen.

“This is exactly what Japan did and it became the second largest economy in the world, until they were overtaken by China not too long ago.

“This is also what China is doing because last year December, China celebrated 40 years of reform and this is what South Korea, Singapore, among others, did.”

He said nations with large and small populations have achieved greatness because they emphasised knowledge and diversified their economy.