By Nana
Osei Kyeretwie, GNA
Sunyani, Aug. 13, GNA – The Senior Minister,
Mr Yaw Osafo-Maafo has urged the Universities to take up the challenge to use
one per cent Gross Domestic Product (GDP) announced by the government to
promote research for the development in
the country.
He said the government believed that the
African Union’s decision that one per cent of the national GDP must be devoted
to research should happen now, because at present the researchers were spending
about 0.3 per cent of the GDP for research “which is grossly inadequate”.
The Senior Minister emphasised that the AU was
recommending one per cent and the Akuffo-Addo’s government was going to make
that (one per cent) up, since the AU was determined that the country must set
aside enough money for research.
In that sense the Ministry responsible for
Innovation, Science and Technology would be doing the necessary collaborations
into issue to ensure that the country could find solutions to its developmental
problems, he added.
Mr. Osafo-Maafo said this when he addressed
the third congregation of the University of Energy and Natural Resources (UENR)
on Saturday in Sunyani.
Eight-hundred and seventy-six graduands
including 21 post-graduates were awarded with Bachelors, Master of Philosophy
(MPhil) and Master of Science (MSc) degrees after four years and two years of
studies at the under-graduate and post-graduate levels respectively.
The Senior Minister argued that the country
had no defence in seeking for external support when “we have all these number
of universities to do fundamental research for us”.
Mr. Osafo-Maafo therefore challenged the
universities to take up the one per cent GDP for research announced by the
government to deliver for the holistic and accelerated development of the
country, saying “the one per cent is GhC2.41 billion which is quite something”.
He stated that Cabinet had decided that the
Minister of Education must furnish it with all the specialties of the various
universities in relation to their respective core mandates, because they were
indispensable entities for the development of the country.
The Senior Minister stressed that the
relevance of the universities for national socio-economic progress could not be
over-emphasised and added “we must make them come closer to the sectors where
we are doing the thinking”.
This, Mr. Osafo-Maafo said was to avoid the
formulation and implementation of polices that could be counter-productive;
hence they must be part of the discussion process because, “the government
policy now was to build a relationship between academia, industry and between
government from the policy level”.
He said all these underpinned the rationale of
the government’s ‘Ghana beyond Aid’ (GbA) concept, explaining “the GbA is that
philosophy which ensures that our resources are used efficiently and
effectively, both human and material for
the things that we can do for ourselves, so that we would not go begging others
to do for us”.
The Senior Minister expressed optimism that
Ghana would then in future be “self-sufficient and self-richer from many
angles”.
He accordingly lauded UENR for the progress
and achievement within a relatively short period of its existence, saying that
the future of the University was bright because the GbA in a broader sense was
about the country’s development, which was also greatly related to science,
technology and natural resources which the institution had established.
Mr. Osafo-Maafo commended the Governing
Council, the Management and staff of the University and pledged his support as
the Senior Minister to the development of the institution.
Dr. Kofi Koduah Sarpong, the Chief Executive
Officer of the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation, earlier admonished the
graduands to religiously be guided by the values of honesty, humility, hard
work, good human relations and humanity in the world of work.
Dr. Sarpong said after years of studies, the
degrees, certificates and qualifications become just stepping stones to enable
one to achieve his or her vision and goals in life.
But “it is those who exemplified these values
who will excel in their personal and professional lives, because they are
essential components of successful life and must therefore be cherished by
everyone”.
GNA