Jean Claude Bastos de Morais Lauds Ghana’s $300-million support to its innovation sphere

Jean Claude Bastos de Morais, the CEO and founder of Quantum Global Group, has lauded Ghana’s effort to support its research & development sector. Such funding will realize the ideas of Ghanaian innovators, and in turn push Ghana in the international market.

“I believe that the first investment is going to come from a kind of a grant from the government and as I heard, the government is going to put 1 per cent of GDP into funds directed to science, technology and innovation.” He added, “I believe that this is the most important thing; prefunding to make sure that you have a product that is sellable on the market.”

Ghana’s government has allocated over $300-million to help the science & technology sector of Ghana. This allocation will be managed by the Science Technology & Innovation Fund, according to Prof Kwabena Frimpong Boateng, the sector minister. There are also plans to set up an innovation council that will manage the uptake of innovation in Ghana.

This innovation sphere will teach youngsters important trades of entrepreneurship. Most of the innovators lack business acumen, and that is why partnership is important. For that, Jean Claude Bastos de Morais explains, “You need to have the right ingredients to become a kind of a businessman because the innovators are not always businessmen.” He adds, “Either you have a double talent that you innovate and a business man or you find a partner and then your partner and his business sense has to make it possible to create a market for the product you have.”

Ghana has grown tremendously in terms of its economy. In 2016, Ghana attracted a net foreign direct investment of $3.5-billion. As mentioned by Quantum Global Group’s Africa Investment Index, Ghana is the 18^th most attractive economy for foreign investors. According to Quantum Global Group, Ghana’s industries boosted the average growth rate to 13%. It helped Ghana to climb up to a middle-income status in 2010.

This wasn’t always the case as Ghana’s economy was quite weak 20 years ago. Between 2007 and 2009, the average economic growth was 5.9%. After a period of prosperity, the GDP again fell to 3.6% from 7% in 2016 due to fiscal deficits and debts amounting to 70% of the GDP.

Ghana’s financial sector went through restructuring recently. According to Jean Claude Bastos de Morais, The private sector can now avail increased bank credit, which is especially helpful to young entrepreneurs and innovators who want to realize their projects.

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