Less than 1 percent of Ghana’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is spent on research and development, a study by the World Bank has found.
The report stated that Ghana has pumped 0.38% of its GDP into research consistently every year since 2007.
[contextly_sidebar id=”OyCBwoIKSjGCFpZQuGKC5ftrU0T95gt2″]The figure, which was the average from 2007 to 2012 was the 74th largest in the world out of the 113 countries sampled and the 12 in Africa.
Japan, Sweden, South Korea, Finland and Israel averagely invest over 3% of their GDP on Research and Development with the Israelis spending over 4% on R&D.
South Africa is Africa’s highest spender on research, investing 0.76% of its GDP annually.
However, the UN has stated that the negligible investments in science and technology in most countries across the, impacting the abilities of countries to escape poverty and address urgent crises such as climate change.
According to the UN’s Scientific Advisory Board, governments should aim much higher: According to the panel, “up to” 3.5 percent is a better goal in order to address the issue of poverty.
“If countries wish to break the poverty cycle … they will have to set up ambitious national minimum target investments” for science and technology, the report says.
By: Edwin Kwakofi/citifmonline.com/Ghana