The Council for Scientific & Industrial Research has revealed that less than 0.5% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) allocated to science, technology and innovation in Ghana.
The proportion of the nation’s budget allocated to science, technology and innovation fluctuates between 0.3% and 0.5% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
[contextly_sidebar id=”QjmhsoOZEKfSsxnDozaRbCGtrLiYbXav”]This is well below the target of 1% of the country’s GDP prescribed at the Summit of African Heads of State of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) in 1980 under the Lagos Plan of action.
This was adopted by the African Union (AU) as a critical means of realizing the goals and objectives of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD).
But some Asian Tigers including Korea, Singapore and Taiwan have spent as much as 2% of GDP on science, technology and innovation- STI.
Some have attributed the poor performance of various sectors of Ghana’s economy including industry, agriculture, health and education to the lack of effective implementation of research and science and technology.
According to the Director-General, of the Council For Scientific & Industrial Research Dr. Abdulai Baba Salifu, “Ghana’s ambition to become an upper middle–income country requires a vision of development which fully applies and integrates science, technology and innovation as well as other R&D outputs into national development strategies to harness fully the nation’s total science and technology capacity to achieve national objectives for poverty reduction, competitiveness of enterprises, sustainable environmental management and industrial growth”.
Speaking at the Accra Institute of technology maiden International Research Initiatives conference , IRIC-2014 Dr. Abdulai Baba Salifu said local scientists and researchers must be supported and given the needed tools to solve the country’s problems.
“It is my hope that the necessary support will be offered our indigenous researchers to make them strive further to move to the frontiers of scientific knowledge to search for solutions to the myriad of developmental challenges we face in our country”, he stressed.
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By: Rabiu Alhassan/citifmonline.com/Ghana