By Edward Acquah
Accra, Oct. 23, GNA – Successful contestants of the maiden National Innovation Challenge (NIC) will receive cumulative financial assistance of up to $1 million as part of a broader national agenda to whip up interest in science and innovation.
The NIC, which is intended to engender competition in the science and innovation community, will offer 1,500 innovators an opportunity to pitch their works in renewable energy, agriculture, waste management, health, oil and gas, manufacturing, mines and minerals processing, and public sector processing improvement.
Dr Kwaku Afriyie, Minister of Environment, Science, Technology, and Innovation (MESTI) launched the initiative at a ceremony in Accra on Monday.
The Competition, which is being implemented by MESTI in collaboration with the Office of the Senior Presidential Advisor, is part of the Public Sector Reform for Results Project.
The NIC is opened to Ghanaian innovators between the ages of 15-60 and successful applicants, who will make up 10 finalists, will receive specified funds up to $100,000 as well as technical support.
Dr Afriyie said the NIC was not only a competition but a collaborative platform where the nation’s brightest minds would be tapped to address emerging challenges.
“It’s a call to action for our scientists, entrepreneurs, students, and anyone with a passion for innovation. We believe in the power of ideas to shape our destiny, and we want to harness that power for the greater good,” he said.
Dr Afriyie said innovation must be in sync with Ghana’s culture and called for more collaboration between industries and academia to address pressing challenges.
Mr Yaw Osafo-Maafo, the Senior Presidential Advisor, lauded the NIC and charged the MESTI to propagate the initiative across the country to boost patronage.
He said the country must prioritise research in the agriculture sector as the backbone of the economy and urged MESTI to coordinate innovations across the country to support national development.
“Let us have a way of coordinating all research and MESTI should do the coordination and do the propagation. People should know what is going on so that together we can use all this knowledge to our advantage,” Mr Osafo-Maafo said.
Mr Kwamena Elssilfie Quaison, the Director of Science, Technology, and Innovation, MESTI, said innovators with women in their teams had an advantage.
He said the Technical Committee supervising the project would ascertain the functionality of the innovation, its usefulness to society, adding that the innovation should be an original idea.
The innovation should have a unique adoption of existing adaptation or technology, Mr Quaison added.
GNA