Lukman Amusa
Scientists have called on governments of African countries to ensure improved inclusive and community-based innovations in their communities.
The call was made on Monday in Abuja during a capacity building initiative, organised by the African Union Scientific Technical Research Commission (AU-STRC), for African Union (AU) Member States.
The capacity building initiative titled “Inclusive and community-based innovation’’ aims to boost Africa’s competitive advantage in the sector.
The Executive Director AUSTRC, Dr Ahmed Hamdy in his opening remarks, said the capacity building initiative was developed to support one of the core policies of the commission centred on “building professional and technical competencies’’.
Hamdy said innovations had gone beyond being used for research and academic purposes alone to the level of being used to affect the lives of the common man who had no access to basic technology, adding that the African continent had to move beyond exporting raw materials only to improving its innovative ideas and harnessing its raw materials to achieve better outcomes.
He urged participants at the workshop to help create more awareness on innovation to ensure affordable access and extensive reach to the very poor in society.
Hamdy said that research institutions had a huge role to play in bridging the gap between innovations, ideas and the users of the products from innovations.
For his part, the Minister of Science and Technology, Dr Ogbonaya Onu said preservation of the rights of scientists through patenting would help position Africa on the path of sustainable growth.
Onu who was represented by the Director General, National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP), Dr DanAzumi Ibrahim, said through patenting, Indigenous products would be preserved and used effectively.
He said the Government would play a big role in encouraging research and academic institutions to imbibe and cultivate the habit of patenting among locals.
Prof. Mohammed Dauda, Managing Director of Advanced Manufacturing Technology Programme (AMTP) in his speech, said the continent was blessed with a lot of mineral and human resources.
Dauda stressed the need for innovative ideas to fully harness such resources.
He said most advanced countries emerged from making the best use of their resources by harnessing their innovative ideas.
“Advanced countries are not just called that because they have the best of roads or any other thing but because they put a lot of innovative ideas to bring about a lot of advancement to their economies,’’ he said.
Similarly, Secretary to Adamawa State Government, Dr Umar Bindir noted that the problems in the African Continent could not be solved by using the same channel through which they were created.
“African scientists need to think outside the box; we need to create innovative ideas that can proffer solutions to the problem of the common man in society.
“These ideas need to be able to solve basic human problems, so everyone is needed to work together.
“The scientists need the captains of industries, marketers and designers to make sure the innovations are designed, produced and commercialised so that the common man can benefit from them.
“Africa can only compete with other continents if solution-driven research is embarked on in every sector of the economy such as health, finance, investment, energy, academia and trade, among others,’’ Bindir said.
