Well-known enterprise magnate Sir Sam Jonah has delivered a proposal for Ghana to re-prioritise Science, Know-how, Engineering, and Arithmetic (STEM) training, asserting that no nation achieves prosperity within the fashionable world with out it at its core.
Talking on Saturday, June 7, 2025, on the Tutorial Metropolis College’s graduation ceremony, Sir Sam, the Chancellor of the College of Cape Coast (UCC), implored Ghana to emulate world powerhouses which have positioned STEM on the coronary heart of their nationwide improvement insurance policies.
Addressing graduates from a college with a “daring and unapologetic concentrate on STEM and entrepreneurship”, Sir Sam, the Govt Chairman of Jonah Capital, an fairness fund based mostly in Johannesburg, South Africa, emphasised that “the longer term will not be imagined — it’s engineered.”
He offered compelling worldwide case research:
- China, now the world’s second-largest financial system, produces over 4 million STEM graduates every yr. This huge output is coupled with a deliberate philosophy the place “virtually each fashionable Chinese language chief has been skilled in STEM”, fostering systematic problem-solving and speedy solution-building.
- India, overcoming colonial poverty, sees almost 3 million college students graduate in STEM fields yearly. Their world dominance in IT companies, prescription drugs, and house science is a direct “results of sustained nationwide technique”. India’s IT sector alone contributes over $200 billion to its financial system yearly, using tens of millions.
- In the US, over half of worldwide college students are in STEM fields, highlighting how Silicon Valley’s innovation ecosystem was constructed on substantial authorities funding in analysis, a tradition of innovation, and future-oriented academic insurance policies.
- Singapore, a resource-poor fishing port at independence, remodeled into one of many richest nations per capita by way of sustained funding in STEM because the Nineteen Seventies. Establishments like NUS and NTU gained world reputations, making it a hub for biotech and electronics, with its electronics trade alone contributing over $100 billion to its GDP.
- Israel, equally resource-scarce, invested early in STEM to grow to be a world chief in tech startups per capita, producing huge numbers of engineers and laptop scientists and attracting billions in enterprise capital.
By stark distinction, Sir Sam highlighted a crucial hole: “Sub-Saharan Africa produces lower than 10% of our graduates in STEM, regardless of having the youngest and fastest-growing inhabitants.”
This alarming statistic underscores the area’s problem in harnessing its demographic dividend for technological development.
Reflecting on Ghana’s personal historical past, Sir Sam lauded President Kwame Nkrumah’s “unmatched foresight” at independence, making STEM training a nationwide precedence.
Dr Nkrumah “incentivised” science and engineering college students with monetary help, rewarded graduates in these fields with increased salaries in public service, and instilled “status connected to technical competence”, viewing STEM as a “patriotic responsibility”.
Nonetheless, Sir Sam lamented, “Sadly, over time, that nationwide prioritisation waned.”
He now referred to as for an pressing return to this focus, not by way of mere slogans, however by way of “deliberate motion”:
- Offering important monetary incentives and scholarships for STEM college students.
- Constructing world-class laboratories in each area to boost sensible studying.
- Rewarding STEM lecturers with engaging profession pathways and public respect.
- Integrating STEM graduates centrally into nationwide improvement planning, not as “afterthoughts”.
Whereas acknowledging the necessity for all professions, Sir Sam pressured the present crucial to prioritise STEM.
He quoted former Governor Richard Lamm: “All we all know concerning the new financial world tells us that nations which prepare engineers will prevail over these which prepare attorneys. No nation has ever sued its technique to greatness.”
Sir Sam concluded with a strong imaginative and prescient: “A nation’s greatness is achieved by way of technological innovation and experience, significantly within the discipline of engineering. Allow us to be that nation.”
His deal with served as a clarion name for Ghana to strategically put money into its scientific and technological human capital to safe its future prosperity.
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