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Public Agenda (Accra)

Ghana: Support Varsity Education

Basiru Adam

16 November 2009

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A former CEO of Unilever Ghana, Mr. Ishmael Yamson, has said that companies need to accept they have a contribution to make in funding university education and research in Africa if their own competitive knack in today's global economy is to be guaranteed.

"Today," Mr. Yamson lamented, "many African University graduates are not immediately employable; they are not equipped with the skills and competencies they require to be immediately employed or to create their own jobs and enterprises. Companies have to spend years of investment to make them suitable for employment."

"He therefore appealed to industry to appreciate that African Universities are capable. They must be willing to put their money into education and research that eventually can help transform Africa for the benefit of all.

The celebrated business executive cited the case of Malaysia, where companies in the oil palm industry contribute 1% of their revenue to a research and development fund. "This is how Malaysia has been able to build a huge economy behind this single crop called oil palm."

Mr. Yamson spoke as the keynote addressee at a ceremony in Accra to mark African University Day 2009 which was under the theme "African Universities: Linkages with the productive sector."The ceremony was attended by university dons from several African countries.

Speaking as a business doyen, Mr. Yamson advised that businesses clearly identify their current and future needs of competencies, skills and capabilities and work with African Universities in the development of curricula and training programmes that will help transform African economies. "Business must recognize the universities as a primary source of qualified applicants. With this, the needs of business can be best met. Without it, the training and investment in the graduates become a costly waste."

As if to answer unforeseen critics, Mr. Yamson said Unilever, which he worked for, set-up foundations in South Africa and Ghana "from which funds are made available to support not only the education of students and faculty, but also to fund research that benefits the company and the country."

African universities are said to contribute less than 1% to world knowledge development and that the University of Cape Town which is ranked first out of Africa's top 100, places 405 out of 6000 universities listed worldwide.

Mr. Yamson said Africa's contribution may have been under-reported since the results of most research works on the continent hardly go beyond the confines of the institutions that undertake them. He said if research findings are published at all, they are done so in foreign journals only for the purposes of securing promotions. "Apart from importing food, we also import knowledge. I am not surprised therefore, that most African countries suffer huge current account deficits and pay colossal sums of money for technology transfers."

Whilst industry must support education and research, Mr. Yamson added, the universities must also become ?a little more strategic and visionary rather than allowing themselves to be overwhelmed by the challenges that confront them today."

Mr. Yamson also had a word of advice for African governments; he said they can promote university-business partnership by providing the right environment and offering tax incentives to promote business-funded research. "The tax incentives can also be extended to cover scholarship awards to both faculty and students."

Speaking for the sector minister, Deputy Minister in charge of Tertiary Education, Dr. Joseph Samuel Annan, agreed that "churning out graduates wholesale from our tertiary educational institutions is not enough." "We... as a nation, he said, "need to seriously look at this strategic partnership between industry and academia."

He added that "a policy which ensures this strategic partnership is institutionalized in all our universities, whereby students in relevant fields can only graduate after having done a number of attachments in industry would be in the right direction."

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