Technology transfer plays various roles in a country, the most notable being economic and technological development.
Private entities as well as the Nigerian government have entered into TTAs with foreign entities. The Nigerian government entered into TTAs with various brands to establish assembling plants for automobile production in Nigeria. Most of these business relationships were successful at their initial stages as they accrued profit, facilitated in the reduction of expenditure incurred on the importation of foreign cars, boosted the value of the naira as their operations helped reduce the demand for foreign exchange and served as a large source of employment to the Nigerian populace1.
Technology transfer develops the economy as it facilitates the transfer of technical knowledge and develops manpower which is then used to generate revenue. A good example of this is the technology transfer that was entered into between Peugeot and Volkswagen with the Nigerian government in the late 90s and earlier parts of the 21st century.
A few of these technology transfers will be evaluated in order to assess the role technology transfer has played thus far in Nigeria.
- Technology transfer of Coca-Cola to Nigeria
Coca-Cola an American brand, sometime in the year 1951, entered into a franchise agreement with Nigerian Bottling Company for the provision of bottling services for the Coca-Cola product. The franchise has been successful in Nigeria thus far as the Nigerian Bottling Company has over 13 bottling facilities across various cities in Nigeria and over 80 distributionwarehouses across the country .
- Technology Transfer of Automobile Peugeot France (AP France) to Nigeria
In 1972, the Nigerian government through its company Peugeot Automobile Nigeria (PAN) Limited, entered into a joint venture TTA with AP France for the production and assembling of Peugeot automobile parts in Nigeria .
Under this business relationship, PAN relied on local (Nigerian) suppliers who provided about 37% local content for the assembling of the automobiles. PAN later faced certain economic setbacks such as decline in oil prices and increased cost of production which led to it accruing losses. This resulted in the privatization of the company with ASD Motors taking over the management of the company in 2007. The acquisition by ASD Motors failed to rescue the company from its economic turmoil which resulted in the subsequent acquisition by the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON)2.
PAN currently retains its plant in Kaduna though it now only produces vehicle parts for Chinese brands, Higer and Chery3.
- Technology Transfer of Volkswagen into Nigeria.
In 1972, the Nigerian government signed a contract with Volkswagen a German brand, for the establishment of a Volkswagen assembling plant in Nigeria. This relationship also provided technical assistance by Volkswagen to develop local content inputs with the end goal of producing 100% Nigerian manufactured cars4.
The business was not successful due to the economic setbacks it faced such as the decline in the value of the naira and reduction in government subsidy. The local content target was never met, and the plant still imported parts from outside the country. This led to the Nigerian government selling its equity to Stallion Group in 20055.
The unsuccessful transfer of technology in the examples highlighted above are largely attributed to negative economic factors having weighty consequences at play in the Nigerian business environment over the years.
It is reasonable to speculate that had the technology transfer been successful, there would have been the possibility of the Nigerian companies maximizing the technology transferred and venturing into developing their own brands as was the case of the Thailand brand, Est. The owners of Est had entered into a partnership with Coca-Cola and Pepsi and thereafter, proceeded to develop the technology acquired to establish its own brand, Est6.
I am in tandem with the view expressed by a number of subject matter experts therefore, that for technology transfer to be considered successful; an innovation, new commodity or product, must have emerged from such transferred technology.
Technology transfer in Nigeria has not been leveraged on by both the government and indigenous brands. This is because most franchisees of foreign brands have remained franchisees of the foreign brands that they represent without going ahead to develop their own brands. Examples of such franchisees are NBC, Kentucky Fried Chicken and Domino's Pizza to mention a few.
Certain Nigerian companies like ANAMCO, though hit by political and economic setback, have however evolved from operating solely as an assembling plant for foreign cars to manufacturing automobile parts locally.
Footnotes
1 Research Clue. (2020). the west and the politics of technology transfer. Available at: https://nairaproject.com/projects/4792-the-west-and-the-pol itics-of-technology-transfer.html. [Accessed: 2023-8-29].
2 Research Clue. (2020). the west and the politics of technology transfer. Available at: https://nairaproject.com/projects/4792-the-west-and-the-pol itics-of-technology-transfer.html. [Accessed: 2023-8-29].
3 https://www.vanguardngr.com/2022/04/pan-nigeria-partsways-with-peugeot-settles-for-higer-chery/
4 Research Clue. (2020). the west and the politics of technology transfer. Available at: https://nairaproject.com/projects/4792-the-west-and-the-pol itics-of-technology-transfer.html. [Accessed: 2023-8-29].
5 Ibid
6 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/272709033_Rese arch_Technology_Transfer_and_Socio-Economic_Development _in_Nigeria_Some_Lessons_from_the_Asian_Economies
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