President John Dramani Mahama has encouraged African countries to complement donor funds for research and innovation.
He said it was time African countries intentionally made budgetary allocations for that purpose to avoid disruption in the event of donor pull-outs.
President Mahama (inset) addressing participants in the conference Photo: Ebo Gorman
Addressing the opening session of the Africa Centres of Excellence (ACE) conference in Accra yesterday, President Mahama said the over reliance on donor funds for research and innovation was not sustainable.
According to President Mahama, the sustainability of ACE was a shared responsibility and there must be a commitment to build strong foundations for long term impacts.
“While continued donor support remain a vital part of this journey, we recognise that we must accelerate efforts to compliment such funding with increased national investment.
“We must put in more money ourselves, into these centres of excellence,” the President stated.
In the wake of the United States withdrawing its donor support for countries around the globe through the USAID, President Mahama said the government had made provision for the allocation of the full amount to fill the gap.
“I met the Vice Chancellor of the University of Ghana who was lamenting the loss of funding because US has pulled USAID but I assured her that we’ll make it up in our budget and I’m happy to report that the minister for finance has fully provided for the US$156 million that was pulled out for them to be able to undertake the research that they undertake to go ahead,” he disclosed
Ghana being home to some of the ACE including the West Africa Centre for Crop Improvement, West Africa Centre for Cell Biology and Infectious Pathogens and the West Africa Genetic Medicine Centre, President Mahama said the centres have not only fostered cutting edge research and innovation but have also trained a new generation of African scientists.
In the view of President Mahama, despite the ground breaking researches by ACE, there was the urgent need for innovation in urban planning, in handling plastic waste pollution, organic farming and fertilisers and so many other challenges facing the continent.
The Vice Chancellor of the University of Ghana, Professor Nana Aba Appiah Amfo, in her remarks said the 0.45 per cent of Gross Domestic Product committed to research by most of the African countries was woefully inadequate.
She said African governments “Must begin to put our money where our mouth lies.”
“It is clear that we have the human resource and we need to be able to facilitate our work by putting in the required financial and other resources. We must, as a matter of urgency, plan and make sufficient budgetary allocations,” Prof. Amfo stated.
She reiterated the need for the continent to leverage on the research outcomes of the ACEs to address global and continental challenges in areas such as energy, health systems, agriculture, digital development, and other priority sectors.
On his part, the Minister of Education, Haruna Iddrisu pledged the government’s commitment to increase investment in education and research.
He said President John Dramani Mahama, had directed that every public university in Ghana this year should have dedicated funding from the Ghana Education Trust Fund to support five PhDs locally in order to build faculties.
Mr Haruna urged the universities in the country to research into traditional medicine as their contribution to the development of health in the country.
The Secretary-General of Association of Africa Universities (AAU), Prof. Olusola B. Oyewole said the event marked an important milestone to improve higher education in Africa.
The three-day international conference is on the theme “Celebrating a decade of impact, innovation and excellence.”
The conference is being attended by Ministers of Education and Finance, academics, researchers, development partners, policy makers and university leaders from Africa to identify strategies, share experiences, develop a roadmap for the future in promoting ACE.
ACE was established 10 years ago by African governments with support from international development agencies such as the World Bank and Agence Francaise De Developpement (AfD) to promote excellence, innovation and research in education to accelerate the continent’s development
BY JULIUS YAO PETETSI AND KINGSLEY ASARE
info@businessghana.com
