Africa Needs Innovative-Driven Entrepreneurship To Create Wealth� Prof.Allotey

Professor Francis Kofi Allotey, a renowned international mathematical physicist, has called for the infusion of creative entrepreneurial innovations into modern science and technology to enhance its potency to aid wealth creation and industrialization in Africa.

He stated that though science and technology were crucial catalyst for economic development, the area needed to be boosted with “creative imagination and value addition to knowledge” by African entrepreneurs to transform it into viable wealth creation entity, to benefit society.

Professor Allotey, who is the President of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences (GAAS) was speaking at the 2nd international conference on applied science and technology (ICAST 2015) organized by the Kumasi Polytechnic.

The three-day conference underway in Kumasi is under the theme “technological innovation for accelerated national growth and development”.

Professor Allotey said science and technology was now regarded as the international currency upon which fortunes of nation would rise and fall.

He pointed out that developing countries of today were slowly waking up to the realization that creation, mastery, utilization of modern science and technology was basically what distinguished the industrialized nations from the developing ones.

The widening gap in economics and influence between the nations of the South and the North is also essentially, a manifestation of science and technology gap.

Professor Allotey conceded that though, African leaders and the international community, now after recognizing that the continent’s development hinged heavily on capital investments, made several declarations by way of addressing of the impeding challenges, “but many of them did not walk the talk”.

He underscored the urgent need for African leaders to provide the enabling atmosphere for entrepreneurs to assist the transition from science to business in order to take discoveries out of the laboratory into market and into the hands of those who would benefit from them.

Professor Allotey stated that Africa could not afford to miss the huge economic and social transformation being brought about by science and technology-led enterprise.

African leaders should provide the right enabling environment to make things happen by providing adequate funding for science, technology, mathematics and innovation.

They should encourage young people to focus on finding scientific solutions to benefit society and take them forward through entrepreneurship.

Professor Allotey also called on management of higher academic institutions like polytechnics, to develop mechanism to support young and budding entrepreneurs through scientific fora, incubation centres and entrepreneurship, coaching and training.

Professor Nicholas Nsowah-Nuamah, Rector of Kumasi Polytechnic, said the conference was to help researchers disseminate their research works.

It would also offer the platform for the participants to exchange ideas, experiences, research findings and knowledge among the academia, industry, policy makers, civil society institutions, development partners and others.

Oheneba Adusei Poku, Akyempinhene of Kumasi, stressed the importance of research to the development of society and urged scientists to always popularize their inventions for the benefit of society.