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Scientists should not be burdened with fundraising -Prof Allotey

A renowned physicist and mathematician, Professor Francis Kofi Ampenyin Allotey, has stated that recent suggestions for scientists in the country to generate funds to finance their research are a threat to scientific development in the country.

According to him, scientists were not entrepreneurs to be overburdened with the problem of generating income.

Speaking at this year’s inaugural lecture of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences in Accra last Thursday, Prof. Allotey was of the view that for the country to develop, the government must fund scientific education and research.

Prof. Allotey, known for the "Allotey Formalism," which arose from his work on soft X-ray spectroscopy, noted that advanced nations had made great investments in their scientific education and research, culminating in their accelerated development, adding that “investment in science is not a waste”.

Prof. Allotey, who is also the President of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences, expressed concern that Ghana had developed a Science policy which lacked the political will and the needed resources to operationalise it for the advancement of the nation.

The main speaker for the inaugural lecture, Prof. Arthur C. Sackeyfio, spoke on the topic: “Harnessing Science for Development of Medicines; Challenges for Ghana in the Global Matrix”.

Prof. Sackeyfio, a Founding Dean of the University Of Ghana School Of Pharmacy, said although diseases occurred universally, not all countries could afford the cost of the present day sophisticated medicines in terms of financial resources required for design, development and production.

He said this high competitive and ruthless commercial activity within the international pharmaceutical industry posed serious medicines development and supply challenges to countries such as Ghana.

Unfortunately, he stated, Ghana’s industry could only provide just 30 per cent of the national medicine requirement and this could also be attributed to the alarming attrition of skilled pharmaceutical manpower to the developed world at a rate of 25 per cent.

He challenged the government to resource scientists in Ghana and support them with resources to use the salt resources in the country to produce intravenous infusion which, he said, could put Ghana at an advantage to supply the entire world with infusions.

By Donald Ato Dapatem/Daily Graphic/Ghana

 

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