Ghana Chemical Society holds Annual Conference

The Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology branch of the Ghana Chemical Society has held its annual conference. The theme of the conference was “Sustaining Ghana’s Middle Income Status: The Role of Good Governance, Chemistry and Industry.”

The President of the Ghana Chemical Students’ Society, KNUST, Mr. Frederick Opoku Frimpong, explained that Chemistry played a very important role in human life especially in Ghanaian education at the Primary, Junior High, Senior High and tertiary levels. However, in Ghana Chemistry was not given its proper place due to lack of support and interest from the government and non-governmental bodies. He therefore called on the government and the alumni of the Chemistry Department to help the Ghana Chemical Society to uplift the image of Chemistry.

Dr. Victus B. Samlafo from the University of Education, Winneba, explained in his speech that the economy of developing countries was moving from the production of raw materials to the processing stage. In order for Ghana to reach the middle income status and sustain it, attention should be accorded to the various branches of science especially Chemistry. He also hoped that Ghana would produce competent teachers for the first and second cycle schools to prepare a solid foundation for future chemists.

In a presentation on Ghana’s economy, Dr. K. A. Koranteng, Senior Registrar of the KNUST Business School stated that the World Bank in July 2011 declared Ghana as well as Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and a host of other countries in Africa as lower middle income countries. In his interpretation, this meant that Ghanaian imports of goods and services were higher than exports. He explained that this was not good enough and that Ghanaians should export more. He also said that Ghana’s Consumer Price Index was likely to drop because of the load shedding and increase in utility bills.

Dr Boateng of the School of Medical Sciences said in his speech that good governance depended on the type of organization. He added that good governance played an essential role in the lives of people and was generally characterized by accountability and accessibility. Nations without good governance were likely to be unstable in everything that they did.
Donations were made to the Chemistry students from the Ghana Chemical Society.