Development of Science and Technology in Ghana/Africa – part 4

This article looks at several other methods the government of Ghana (and that of other African countries) can explore to quicken the pace of Science and Technology (S&T) development in their respective countries. For a systematic development in any field, there must be a well formulated policy/plan which seeks to guide the field. The necessary adjustments to the policy/plan are then made with advancing knowledge in the field. That is for Ghana and other African countries to make a leap in S&T, they need to have a sound S&T policy in place. Such a policy should be partly guided by the type of technology they wish to develop in their respective countries. Broadly speaking, two forms of technology could be available to a country and they are the Borrowed Technology (BT) and Indigenous Technology (IT). The former, as the name implies is a type of technology which is accessed from another country whilst the latter is developed in the home country.

Ghana and other African countries need to be clear about the direction they are taking as far as the two types of technology are concerned because, that will largely guide the nature of Research and Development (R&D)they set up.  The question then is, do African countries stick to the Borrowed Technology or the Indigenously Developed Technology, or use both of them simultaneously? Definitely, we cannot move away from developing our Indigenous Technology, because we need that to be able to process many of our raw materials that we consume and export. That is to say, the Indigenous Technology, when well-developed has several advantages including development of skills of the labor force, availability of jobs and reduced prices of consumer products. However, IT alone may not be enough to keep up with the technological demands of our growing economies and especially improve the standards of living of people in the short-term. And so in addition to the IT, African countries can borrow technology from scientifically and technologically developed countries, adapt and possibly improve such technology to suit their environment(s). For instance, one area of importance to many African countries is improving farm yields, and currently we are aware that Biotechnology among others has the power of accomplishing that task. So if such a technology is available we can establish an R&D to adopt and adapt it to our benefit – saving us the trouble of researching from the scratch. In other words, it will be a good idea if African countries formulate policies, which make use of both Indigenous Technology and Borrowed Technology simultaneously, which in turn is expected to guide planning and investments in R&D related to S&T development.

Funding is required to develop Indigenous Technology and properly use Borrowed Technology. Especially in the Borrowed Technology situation, expertise would have to be sought at a cost probably from the country or countries which have developed the technology. To minimize the costs for such technology transfers, the government of Ghana (and that of other African countries) should seek to form bilateral relations in science, technology and innovation with the industrialized and newly industrialized countries. Under such bilateral relations, we can benefit from among others, training of our personnel, sharing of technologies, solving of common problems together and systematic development of capacity and capability for science and technology. Such bilateral relations should also seek to actively establish research and training centers of excellence in Ghana (and other African countries). The African Union (AU) is poised to encourage the development of S&T in Africa and harmonize emerging technologies and innovations among member states, which is a good first step.

Funding for R&D in Science and Technology (S&T) can come from three main sources: the private sector, government funds and foreign loans. It is very helpful when the private sector contributes significantly to R&D development of a country because that means the private sector is robust and is building the skills of the labor force and creating jobs. However in Ghana, private sector contribution to R&D is very small (less than 5%) compared to about 40% or more in industrialized and newly industrialized countries. Government funding of R&D through locally generated funds is economically wise for the main reason that the government tends to dictate its scale of preference for projects and their funding. However, in the last case of funding R&D with foreign loans, there could be a problem in that the lender usually sets up guidelines for the use of the money and that could conflict with the priorities of the government and indeed the country. This situation can lead to stagnation or even retrogression in S&T growth. So it is advisable that government tries as much as possible to generate funds from its local resources to pursue R&D in S&T programs.

It must be understood that many of the countries which have excelled in S&T have devoted considerable amount of resources to R&D and currently, the percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) invested in R&D is an important parameter in measuring technological advancement. That is, in those countries with high science and technology development, investments have been between 1 – 4 % of their GDP. South Africa is investing close to 1% of its GDP in R&D and it appears to be the only country in Sub-Saharan Africa with advanced development in Science and Technology. In Ghana and in many other African countries, the percentage GDP invested in R&D has been below 0.5% and consequently, the level of S&T development in such countries has been poor. The African union (AU) recommended that African countries strived to achieve an investment of at least 1% of their GDP in R&D by 2010, but it is not clear how many African countries were able to meet that goal. It is imperative that African countries strive to achieve that goal and go beyond that in the short-term as part of their commitment to use S&T to transform the economies of their countries.

As we mentioned above, in Ghana, the contribution to R&D development from the private sector is very small. This does not augur well for development of S&T especially in the circumstances where government funding to that sector is also weak. Government must take bold steps to encourage R&D in industries by creating a congenial atmosphere for that purpose. It must also put in place measures which do not favor wholesale import of semi -finished goods to be assembled to finished products in Ghana – some of the key reasons being that, importation of semi finished products takes away research and development (R&D) from the local industry, diminishes technological advancement and reduces job creation, which are bad for the economy. So government must rather encourage imports of raw materials (if they cannot be found locally); and process such raw materials in Ghana to finished goods for consumption locally or for export.

One area lacking proper coordination and management in Ghana and other African countries is harnessing innovative ideas from academia and translating them into industrial products. To address that, government must set up an innovation and technology transfer office to oversee such creative endeavors. Such an office, among others will seek to minimize the bottlenecks which come up during the process.

These are few suggestions which will impact on the S&T development in Ghana and other African countries. Please look out for the next article.

By Nana Osei-Kwabena

sciencnt@yahoo.com