Prioritise innovation-friendly policies for sustainable development - Govt urged

The best way to ensure sustainable development is for the government to continue to pursue policies that favour innovation and industrialisation.

The Chairman of the Association of Ghana Industries (AGI) in the Greater Accra Region, Tsonam Cleanse Akpeloo, who proposed, said it was a sound policy environment that allowed innovation and ideas to thrive and create sustainable jobs for national development.

"This calls for government to make available financing through reduced policy rate so that innovators and entrepreneurs can have access to cheaper loans to promote their ideas," he said. 

Mr Akpeloo, who made the call at the Falling Wall Foundation's Lab Ghana last Friday, stressed that the government must create tax incentives to support the growth of innovative ideas.

The concept of Falling Walls Lab is an initiative of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) which started in 2011. The initiative seeks to connect aspiring innovators, discover and develop talents, support interdisciplinary dialogue and international cooperation, develop new ways of scientific communication and build strong networks.

Pitches

At the Lab Ghana 2024 event held last Friday, 19 young innovators pitched innovative technologies cutting across various sectors - education, energy, water and sanitation, agriculture and health.

Participants in the opening session of Lab Ghana 2024 at WACCBIP, University of Ghana.

The innovative solutions ranged from reducing time wastage and carbon emissions, fire outbreaks, fruit waste, Post-harvest loss, antimicrobial resistance, enhancing waste management and addressing agriculture feed crises.

The best pitch will be given a grant to present their research work on business models at the Lab Finale in Berlin, Germany, in November this year. 

Commendable pitches

Mr Akpeloo, who was the Chairman of the jury, said he was impressed with the innovative ideas the young innovators had demonstrated and was optimistic that given the needed push, they would unleash their potential to address key development issues.

"These pitches are crucial because they elicit the best in our people, promote innovation and creativity, invoke hard work and thinking among young people," he said. He added that the project was crucial for developing talents and the industrial space of Ghana, stressing that the nations that had developed did so on the back of innovation, technology and industrialisation.

The AGI chairman added that to secure the future of the country, it was important to focus on promoting ideas and initiatives that promote sustainable development and ensure that young people had jobs to do.

"While at it, the industry must also create networking and collaborative platforms for the startups so that they will have the needed mentorship," he added.

Proactive initiative

For his part, the Programme officer of Falling Walls Lab Ghana, Felix Barnes, said the pitches were targeted at building the capacity of young people to address key development challenges by leveraging innovation.

He said it was important for young people to be given the platform to showcase their innovations and supported to translate those ideas into real projects that helped to address the needs of the country.

“They can leverage finding other opportunities with their pitches; so, beyond these pitches, the young people need to be supported to unleash their potential,” he said. Mr Barnes said the Falling Walls Foundation, through DAAD, was promoting academic research marketing to connect Ghana to Germany.

“When they go to the Falling Walls in Berlin, DAD sponsors a kind of research tour within Germany to help people get closer to the research facilities or the big facilities that we have.

The Falling Walls Lab, therefore, serves as a platform to promote German academic and research innovations,” he added.