Resuscitating Ghana’s Economy: the Role of Research and development (R&D)

This is the ninth part of a series of articles concerning the role of various institutions, stakeholders and actors in revitalizing the ailing Ghanaian economy. I recently wrote a piece (https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/resuscitating-ghanas-economy-role-abandoning-culture-winner-mensah/) commending “the smooth and peaceful transition of power (from the incumbent to the opposition) in a highly contested 2016 election as one of the Positive Achievements in my beloved country – Ghana”. As stated in that article “elections is just a “MEAN but not an END” to improve the welfare of the nation.

A critical look at economies (e.g. Germany, Japan, USA, etc.) that rely on or are led by innovation driven institutions (i.e. strong Research and Development entities - either private or public funded) as a MEANS to improve the nation’s welfare have had a strong competitive edge in all sectors of the global economy.

? “Research and development (R&D) comprise creative work undertaken on a systematic basis in order to increase the stock of knowledge, and the use of this knowledge to devise new applications. R&D covers three main activities:

(1) Basic research - Basic research is experimental or theoretical work undertaken primarily to acquire new knowledge of the underlying foundation of phenomena and observable facts, without any particular application or use in view

(2) Applied research - Applied research is also original investigation undertaken in order to acquire new knowledge; it is, however, directed primarily towards a specific practical aim or objective.

(3) Experimental development - Experimental development is systematic work, drawing on existing knowledge gained from research and/or practical experience, which is directed to producing new materials, products or devices, to installing new processes, systems and services, or to improving substantially those already produced or installed”

Ghana my beloved country unfortunately relies strongly on partisan politics as MEANS of designing development policies (i.e. direction and implementation). Most policies aimed at improving the economy usually emanate from populism party manifestoes (e.g. One-District-One-Factory, One-Village-One-Dam, etc.). Such populism policies are normally not backed by any sound implementation plans except “trial-and-error” (locally called Buga-Buga). Most often, the outcome of such trial-and-error populism policies is a massive waste of public funds through white elephant projects (e.g. pineapple factory going waste, sugar-cane factory going waste, digital addressing system not being used by a large section of the population, etc.).

To illustrate this point further, just recently, Joy FM (an Accra based FM station) aired a documentary on the plight of Tomato growers in Ghana; it was clear from the documentary that, the major problem facing tomato producers was a varietal problem. Traders and consumers were boycotting the tomato varieties being produced by the Ghanaian farmers in favour of tomato varieties being imported from Burkina Faso and other neighboring countries. The documentary highlighted the claim, “the imported varieties have a longer shelf life and are less watery” – a quality properties consumers were demanding. The logical response to this claim, perhaps, will be a swift scoping study to ascertain the facts (i.e. beside varietal issues, cataloging other major challenges along the entire tomato value chain), while some immediate remedial steps are taken to provide farmers with improved varieties (with same or similar qualities as required by the market) to satisfy consumer demand.

Well, guess the response of the sector minister to this problem – provision of irrigation facilities to farmers in the tomato producing areas of Ghana (source: 25-05-2018, Joy FM 6 o’clock evening news). So as expected from a typical African leader, without any evidence or fact-check to support policy direction and implementation (e.g. cost benefit analysis of providing irrigation facilities in these production areas, etc.). Also, with no scoping study whatsoever (except a documentary piece of a local FM station) to comprehensively map the facts across the tomato value chain, with the aim of designing a practical and realistic solutions to the current problems of the tomato industry. The sector minister decides to supply irrigation facilities so that farmers can produce more of the same varieties which currently have no market demand. Somehow, the minister expects the irrigation facilities to solve the varietal plus any other challenges facing the industry. No statement in the news bulletin indicates any role of the country's R&D entities in helping to solve this varietal problem.

I was particularly not surprise by the approach adopted by the sector minister as I listen to the news, because as has been the hallmark throughout Africa, our politicians have always looked for ways to enrich themselves quickly through kicks-backs resulting from implementing white elephant projects. You see, scoping evidence based on facts to guide policy direction and implementation will mean spending money through Research & Development (R&D), an area most sectoral ministers/politicians will not want to hear or have anything to do with. In most African countries, devoting monies to R&D is an area which is considered as both too academic and alien to the developmental philosophy. However, devoting monies to infrastructural projects (such as building irrigation dams, whether needed or not) is a welcome news to all African politicians (and I guess you know why?). Obviously, the fact that Ghana’s development depends critically on science, technology and innovation as embodied in the African Union’s Agenda 2063 is totally irrelevant to most of our politicians. It is also needless to remind these politicians that, expenditure on research and development (R&D) is a key indicator of government and private sector efforts to obtain a competitive advantage in the global trade arena. To most politicians, what is actually relevant is the share of the kickbacks from such white-elephant projects - a fashionable trend in our current political dispensation.

Currently, Africa accounts for just 1.3% of the global investment in research and development (R&D) and holds only 0.1% of the world’s patents. The question is, how do we change such a gloomy picture to enhance the capacities of both the public and private R&D entities solve Africa’s problems and build great products to help African nations succeed? How do we force our politicians to make an appreciable investment in R&D an integral part of any future developmental policy? Given the fact that, huge sums are wasted yearly on white-elephant projects means the money is there. The challenge is to make sure that it is invested in R&D (scientific innovation and technology) for Africa’s development.

As usual your comments, criticisms, questions and point(s) of correction, etc. are always welcome. Please kindly comment with some positive suggestion(s) on how to help develop my country - Ghana further, pushing the frontier beyond the current status-quo. Thanks.