Prof: We will create innovation centers in all the regions so that children will be able to play with things. I am hoping for a toy-manufacturing business in Ghana so that people can create things. He will set up a business development unit for link talented Ghanaians to opportunities.
Suhuyini: A court gave directives on a Trust Fund of the Ghana Heart
Foundation. Have you complied.
Prof: The matter is on appeal.
Alhassan Suhuyini: Water resources in my constituency is being destroyed because a landfill site has been cited close to the water body.
Prof: I don’t think there should be any landfill site. Sweden is importing waste. What is at the landfill site is waste that has huge potential.
MP OB Amoah: How will you tackle urban waste?
Prof: There is technology to recylce dirty oil, hard plastic and e-waste. We will turn groundnut husk into activated carbons. If you have sawdust, leave it for us, we will turn it into something. Even wood gas can be produced in Ghana.
MP: How will you ensure that Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Guidelines on fuel stations are followed strictly.
Nominee: It is about all of us obeying simple rules. The way you treat your gas cylinder in your home, is the same way fuel stations must treat the explosive substance. It is about chaging a Ghanaian mentality about safety because more people die from accidents at home than at fuel stations.
MP: How are you going to find the money to fund your ideas for the ministry?
Prof: We spend 0.25% of GDP on research. At least we need to spend 1%. The poverty gap is a technology gap. The difference between them and us is technology. We have to find the money to do it. I don’t know how but the Finance people must find it.
He says Ghana needs a critical mass to influence and direct science and technology in Ghana. Science and technology infrastructure in Ghana is ‘very very weak’.
He believes a crusade for handing washing is not getting down with children because the methodology is not scientific. If a magnifying is placed over a dirty hand, the children would see for themselves otherwise unseen bacteria.
The nominee is answering questions on his CV.
One of Ghana’s accomplished surgeons is facing a team of politicians in Parliament to scrutinse his nomination as the minister-designate for Environment Science and Technology.
Prof. Kwabena Frimpong Boateng, a 67-year old who performed the first open-heart surgery in Ghana is expected to open up his ideas on how he intends to transform the country’s science and technology culture.
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