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Professor Francis Gudyanga

Leonard Ncube in Victoria Falls
AFRICAN academics have gathered in Victoria Falls to tackle the problem of brain drain affecting most countries on the continent.

The University of Zimbabwe (UZ) organised the international conference for tertiary institutions in an attempt to find solutions to problems of brain drain and lack of innovation facing Africa.

The inaugural Africa Conference for Research, Innovation and Development (ACRID 2017), which is in partnership with the European Alliance for Innovation (EAI), started on Tuesday and ended yesterday at a Victoria Falls hotel bringing together academics, researchers and industrialists, particularly those with an impact on Africa.

EAI is an international professional association based in Belgium with a bias towards research in science and technology as well as supporting innovation.

Officially opening the conference, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development, Professor Francis Gudyanga, said the initiative came at the right time when Africa requires capacity building to reverse brain drain which cripples economies.

“This conference promotes a multi-disciplinary approach to the solution of problems and application of innovation in industrial production. Africa currently faces a serious flight of skills and possible answers to this problem could be investment in capacity building and teaching models that utilise modern communication technologies that link north and south,” said Prof Gudyanga.

He said the conference is also historic for Zimbabwe as it comes at a time when the country has registered phenomenal growth in the higher education and training sector.

The Permanent Secretary said government is committed to development as evidenced by education policies it has implemented over the years, with the latest being the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM).

“The conference is relevant as it complements STEM, through which government is responding to the need to develop human capital and impact across all sectors of the economy,” he said.

The theme for the conference was: “Moving Africa forward through science and engineering, technology and innovation.”

EAI was set up in 2010 and has 27 000 individual and over 250 institutional members respectively.

Speakers were drawn from learning institutions and research organisations across the globe.

UZ Vice Chancellor Prof Levi Nyagura said the idea of organising the conference was to bring together academics and researchers to find solutions to the continent’s problems.

“This is a convenient vehicle through which best brains can showcase their research ideas and drive innovation for the benefit of Zimbabwe and beyond by bringing academics from all tertiary institutions in Zimbabwe and across Africa,” he said.

Prof Nyagura said the platform will not just be a talk show, but to share ideas going forward.

@ncubeleon