Africa Youth must defuse their minds about science positively – Prof. Akinbo  

Accra, Sept.15, GNA – Professor Olalekan Akinbo, Head of the Centre for Science Technology Innovations, AUDA-NEPAD has called for the need to defuse the minds of African youth about science and convince them that science can translate the development of the continent. 

“Africa has a strong youth population, and we need to build the minds of these young minds for them to see the benefits of science that can positively translate development especially the health sector. 

Speaking at the Imaging Cellular and Chromosome Dynamics Conference, organised by the Sena Institute of Technology Foundation in collaboration with The Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) Prof. Akinbo noted that the youth needed not to travel outside the continent before they could use whatever they have been trained in the medical space. 

The four-day conference brought together scientists, academic and clinical partners from around the world to discuss emerging technologies on chromosome and cellular imaging. 

Prof. Akinbo said Africa had a demography of youth that could positively be engaged to improve science on the continent by translating the knowledge acquired in country and in continent into usability.  

“Africa is not a dumping market for any foreign technology. The continent is capable and has resources and the human capacity needs to grow it,” he added. 

He explained that what the youth needed was to believe in themselves, and gain confidence in themselves in the world of health care to enable them to compete favourably with other continents  

Prof. Akinbo expressed concern about the weak structure of the health systems in Africa compared to other continents and “until we create an ecosystem to involve every stakeholder in the health space, we will be doing ourselves more harm than good especially the health sector.  

He said there was lack of connectivity between service providers, scientists, and the medical system and to address such a challenge, he hinted that AUDA-NEPAD was driving the Agenda 2063, which seeks to enhance the Africa We Want. 

“Africa is driving Agenda 20263 and one of them is to drive its own health sector, which we need the youth to have a mind change to discover and make the health sector strong, make it competitive and drive the demand beyond the continent.” 

To achieve this, AU is helping to connect policy to science for end users to benefit, develop our own and be self-sufficient where Africans develop their own health sector without any external influence,” he added. 

Prof. Akinbo called for a stronger collaboration, expand research, and synergise activities to involve more youth on the continent to achieve the Africa we want. 

Dr Andrews Kwasi Agbleke, Executive Director, Sena Institute of Technology Foundation, Boston who was the convener said there was the need to bring together the scientific community to talk about innovations and new developments happening in the world.  

“A meeting like this encourages Ghanaian scientists and researchers to develop their science by learning what is currently happening in their laboratories.”   

He explained that some of the scientists were working on DNA functioning in cells to know the sorts of diseases and how to solve them as well as the new discoveries from the laboratories which sometimes break the knowledge in the textbooks.  

The meeting focused on three main themes -Imaging cellular and chromosome dynamics; Image processing and integration; Computational biology and data mining. 

It also presented the latest research and fostered discussion on: Environment and Epigenetics, Disease and Whole Organisms Imaging, RNA Imaging and Transcription, Emerging Technologies and Image Analysis, Chromosome Structure and Organization, DNA Recombination, Cellular and Protein Imaging, Quantitative Biophysics. 

“FASEB is committed to sustaining diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion (DEAI) in the biological and biomedical sciences. Our goal is to create and support a conference environment that is welcoming and safe for all. FASEB believes in inclusion of diverse participants,” he added. 

GNA