• VC said universities are faced with inadequate funds to facilitate extensive research, technology and innovations,which are profitable.
• Institutions are forced to source for funding from elsewhere thereby slowing the research and innovations.
@alalmaurice
Inadequate funding by the government is the major hindrance to profitable research and innovations, a university official has said.
Great Lakes University Vice Chancellor Prof Hazel Mumbo on Thursday said universities are faced with inadequate funds to facilitate extensive research, technology and innovations.
Research, technology and innovations can be very profitable and universities have been urged to develop their own revenue.
Prof Mumbo said the national government has not been keen to address insufficient funding of universities. She called the issue urgent.
The VC said that it will now force the institutions to source for funding from elsewhere, thereby slowing the research and innovations.
She spoke at the Mama Grace Onyango Social Hall in Kisumu on Thursday ahead of a conference on digital platforms in health management.
The event is known as the Grace Onyango Foundation Digital Health Conference Centre and will focus on the launch of the Grace Onyango Foundation as well as the Africa Digital Health conference.
The event will attract guests from across the world on October 17 and 18. Dignitaries from the World Bank and the World Health Organization will attend.
The conference will also bring together leaders from the Lake Region Economic Bloc (LREB) and Unicef.
“A number of universities have started writing proposals to secure the elusive funding that is significant in research and innovations,” Mumbo said.
She said local innovators will showcase their works.
Prof Mumbo, a public health specialist, said research and innovation was the best way to go for a developing country, such as Kenya.
She said using digital platforms in various forms was important.
The health workers, Prof Mumbo said, will be inducted on how to use digital technology in the diagnosis and management of health systems.
She said the Covid-19 pandemic adversely affected many universities across the world.
“Now they are slowly coming out of the problem. This requires proper funding and structures to be put in place,” Prof Mumbo added.
The conference will focus on the importance of homegrown digital health tech innovation in Africa, roles of universities, research institutions, start-ups, governments, incubators, investors, digital network providers, regulators and big health providers.
The participants will also deliberate on connecting investors and incubators to African start-ups in digital health, creating a Kisumu digital health start-up hub,
The event will include a number of thought leaders in the digital health as well as women from across the globe who will speak on women's leadership.
The conference will include Mama Grace Onyango, a forerunner in politics as well as an educationalist.
(Edited by V. Graham)