The Minister for Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation (ESTI), Dr. Kwaku Afriyie, has urged the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) to commercialise some of its innovations and activities to raise revenue for the country.
He said although the CSIR was originally set up to conduct studies times have evolved, and some of the institutes of CSIR – including the Food Research Institute (FRI), the Building and Road Research Institute (BRRI), Crop Science Institute (CSI) and the Institute for Industrial Research (IIR) – now have very great commercial value.
Dr. Afriyie during a tour of FRI and IIR however recognised that commercialising some activities of the CSIR might contravene some of the laws governing the institution; and therefore said there is a need for legislative and policy amendments so that commercialisation can be possible.
“So, the departments in IIR like Metrology Department which develops innovations for weather forecasting, and the Engineering Department which does repairs of medical and lab equipment, among others, have a virtual monopoly and it would be wrong to tie them to only research,” he said.
He added that the food processing unit of the FRI, which produces products such as Neat Fufu, must commercialise their products so that research stays relevant to national development – rather than private entities taking up these innovations and enriching themselves.
According to him, one major challenge that the CSIR face is the centre’s inability to make the innovations of its scientists known to the public.
“When scientists make a breakthrough they are self-effacing, but when an herbalist discovers something s/he will be everywhere trumpeting it. It’s a fact that ethical issues prevent scientists from boasting, but this is keeping a lot of information from the Ghanaian public – especially about potentials of the CSIR,” he said.
For instance, he said, the Crop Science Institute (CSI) has manufacture inoculants that increase yield of farm produce like soyabean by 30 percent, but not all farmers across the country -and even the Ministry of Food and Agriculture are aware of it.
He therefore urged officials CSIR and its institutes to market their innovations and promote them using science and data, so that Ghanaians will know there are institutes which are into all sorts of research and can help the country.
He hinted that another issue faced by the CSIR is the lack of linkages among the CSIR institutes, and also between the institutes and other government agencies. For instance, he said, CSIR institutes construct buildings using bricks form others source instead of using bricks from the BRTI.
In addition, farmers across the country, the Ministry of Food and Agriculture and Ghana Cocoa Board need some inputs which the CSIR can readily produce – such as seed, seedlings and fertilizer – but they are not aware of what the CSIR can do.
He said government remains committed to making the vision of a technology and research driven Ghana a reality; adding that scientific and data-driven analysis is very important for all humankind and leads to progress in society.
