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Nigeria: Okonjo-Iweala - Science, Technology, Antidotes to Poverty in Africa
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This Day (Lagos)
31 July 2008
Posted to the web 31 July 2008
Kunle Aderinokun
Abuja
Former Minister of Finance and Managing Director, World Bank, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has attributed the poverty plaguing many countries in Africa to lack of science and technology base to solve their problems through innovations.
Okonjo-Iweala who spoke in Abuja at the end of the board meeting of the African University of Science and Technology (AUST) noted that countries that have innovations have been able to use that to solve their problems.
She posited that innovations could lift the people of the continent out of poverty
"Science and Technology is the future of Africa. If you look everywhere, countries that have managed to make a leap have depended on having innovation and applying that innovation to solve their problems. One of the most serious things that have kept us in poverty is the lack of science and technology base- lack of excellence in our work".
"For the first time, it has been decided by all these international supporters and the diaspora of Africa, professors have come together to say we have to put forward this to create a base for our young people to solve this problem and have innovations that can lift us out of poverty".
"It is innovation that led people to discover applications for the computers, it's innovation that led to green revolutions, it's innovation that has led to so many things that have lifted so many people out of poverty," she said.
The institution which is part of the larger Abuja Technology Village was established by the Nelson Mandela Institution in 2007 as the first Pan-African Network of Institutes of Science and Technology and Centres of Excellence located across the continent. It is being funded by the World Bank Group, amongst other development institutions.
AUST has developed extensive links with the African scientific Diaspora and is able to count on substantial pool of scientists and engineers teaching and conducting research in the best universities across the world.
Strong partnerships have already been established with the African Institute of Mathematical Sciences (AIMS) in Cape Town and with Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT) and with the AIST affiliate centre- the International Institute for Water and Environmental Engineering in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
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THISDAY gathered that 50 per cent of those admitted into postgraduate studies as pioneer students are from Nigeria with some 30 per cent from Ghana. The remaining 20 per cent is being shared amongst other African countries.
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