Give us More Money to Deliver - CSIR Chair

By Lawrence Vomafa Akpalu

The Chairman of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) Professor Robert Kingsford-Adaboh, has called for more financial commitments to enable institutions under CSIR deliver on their mandate.

According to him, the pool of scientific talents at the CSIR could help transform the country from a consumer economy to a production led economy using science and technology.

Prof. Kingsford-Adaboh said this at a fund raising dinner on Friday in Accra to solicit for funds to run the council's activities.

Science, he explained, was the answer to the country's problems and appealed to stakeholders to support the CSIR implement its programmes.

The CSIR was established some 60 years ago to provide answers to the country's economic challenges, but 60 years down the line, most of its programmes could not be implemented due to lack of funds and other logistics.

Prof Kingsford-Adaboh indicated that every good choice had cost element attached, and with little mathematics the much expressed progress of the country could be achieved.

"We must believe as a country that we could use science and technology to move the country from its poverty state into a prosperous nation envisaged by our forefathers," he said.

The Chairman stated that, the issues of the Fall Army worm, the current tilapia crises, among other crisis, affecting agriculture could be effectively dealt with by the council, if supported by all stakeholders.

"We only talk as a country, but never walk the talk, it's time we stop the feet dragging and brace the storm, else we'll be left behind," he said.

Prof Kingsford-Adaboh said that, the 13 institutions under the CSIR were viable national assets that must be jealously guarded to ensure the implementation of their core mandates.

"Science and technology is now ruling the world, lets us stop the lip service and forward march the country into the path of prosperity," he said.

There were pledges from institutions including the Cocobod and the National Investment Bank (NIB).

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