Director General, Nigerian Institute of Social and Economic Research (NISER), Professor Antonia Simbine, has tasked policymakers and leaders of government at various levels with utilising research outputs as the framework for the formulation of policies for the country.

Simbine called this a validation workshop for the NISER Strategy Plan 2024-2028, held on Tuesday at NISER, Ibadan.

Lamenting the low uptake of research output in the country, with many of them accumulating dust on shelves and libraries, Simbine said the nation would be better off if research outputs were taken into consideration in the formulation of policies.

Simbine said, “The uptake of research output is quite low in the country. It was worse before, but things have started to change with the involvement of external stakeholders, people from different ministries, extra-ministerial departments, and agencies, as well as development partners and the National Assembly.

“By doing so, they become more familiar with what we do and what we are likely to do, as contained in the plan and in the process of policy formulation. Our hope is that they will consult more to get our research output in order to use it to formulate policy for the country.”

Speaking on the NISER strategic plan (2024–2028), Simbine said the institute remained committed to evidence-based interventions to confront the challenges of the Nigerian state.

In particular, she said the plan states the resolve of NISER to focus on providing solutions to economic, social, food security, inflationary, employment, exchange rate, agriculture, environment, infrastructural development, innovation, technology, security, and climatic challenges.

She noted that the focal areas of the strategic plan were also in line with the country’s national development plans and aimed at good governance in the country.

Giving further insight into the strategic plan document, Head, Knowledge Management Department, NISER, Professor Andrew Onwuemele, said the institute took into cognizance the low uptake of research output over the years as it engaged external partners before arriving at priority areas.

He said the institute, through research, aimed to provide ways to address challenges relating to food security, environment and physical infrastructure, floods, and the climate.

He added that the NISER researchers will give evidence of how women can participate actively in policy making, how to tackle inflation and high exchange rates, low technology development and adoption, human capital development, and low investment in education.

Notwithstanding the priority areas, Onwuemele said the strategic plan was designed to be adaptable and flexible to be able to respond to emerging socioeconomic and other challenges in the country.

The event also featured group presentations scrutinising the NISER strategy plan 2024–2028.