Prof Frimpong Boateng decries lack of funding for research

pulse-ghana admin 10:34 - 26 June 2017

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According to Professor Kwabena Frimpong Boateng, only 0.025 percent of GDP is allocated to research, a situation which he says is not adequate to foster innovation in the country.

Ghanas Minster of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation has decried the percent of gross domestic product that is allocated to original research.

“To do the things that we want to do in research, we need money and as at now, the money that is given for research is just about 0.025 percent of our GDP. And that is not enough to pay the scientist much more to undertake research,” the minister said at a forum on innovation organised by Accra-based Citi FM.

“…The President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has said that he will start by devoting one percent of GDP into research and that is very good news indeed. And he put me at the ministry to do things for him; I’m serving at his pleasure. So I will remind him all the time of his promise to enable me function as a scientist and a doctor in that respect,” he added.

In the past many state institutions mandated to carry out research, such as Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, have bitterly complained on several occasions about scarce resources.