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African governments urged to independently fund
science & technology
Accra, Sept. 10, Ghanadot/GNA – Professor Walter Sandow Alhassan,
a former Director General of the Council for Scientific and
Industrial Research (CSIR), on Wednesday called on African
governments to independently fund science and technology
development.
He said even though forming alliances with the developed world
were crucial, African governments should be more assertive and
invest their own resources on a continuing basis into science
and technology development.
According to him, this would help address the continuing
marginalization of the continent and make it a force to reckon
with when it came to innovation of products for development.
Professor Alhassan made the call when he delivered an annual
lecture, which formed part of activities to mark the 50th
anniversary celebration of the Ghana Academy of Arts and
Sciences (GAAS) in Accra.
His topic was “Technology for Development in Resource-Poor
Countries”.
He said developing countries should strive to embrace technology
and apply it in their everyday activities to enable them move
faster and up on the development ladder.
Professor Alhassan said given the opportunities that technology
offered it would never be handed down to the developing
economies unless they made the efforts themselves by allocating
resources to develop it.
He mentioned Japan and China, who he said, undertook major
reforms leading to industrial revolution by developing
programmes that aided the development of their technology
sectors.
He called for collaboration between industry and research
institutions as well as adoption of strategies to promote local
scientific innovations.
He also called for measures to compel foreign entities in the
country to hire local people to ensure technology transfer.
Professor Reginald Amoonoo, President of GAAS supported
proposals by the National Development Planning Committee for the
appointment of a scientific adviser to the president of the
republic.
Professor Amoonoo said this would help give attention to
scientific issues and put science and technology development at
the national level of governance.
GNA
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