AfricaPress-Tanzania: TANZANIA Commission for Science and Technology (Costech) has called upon development partners and the private sector to support young innovators by buying their products and connecting them to markets.
Costech Director General, Dr Amos Nungu, said recently that innovation ecosystem in the country was growing, thus the commission was determined to reach all innovators in urban and rural areas.
Dr Nungu was giving his closing remarks of this year’s Innovation Week with the theme “Innovate for Impact.”
Innovation Week is a series of events exploring innovation in research, entrepreneurship, technology and design curated by Human Development Innovation Fund (HDIF) UKAid and Costech in collaboration with other partners.
The DG said the government would take into account all recommendations given during Innovation Week and pledged cooperation with other stakeholders in improving systems, guidelines, procedures and laws to stimulate innovation development.
He said the National Competitions of Science, Technology, and Innovation (Makisatu) 2020 scheduled for Dodoma aimed at creating an enabling environment to ensure no innovator was left behind.
“Our task is to ensure that we coordinate and promote science and technology in the country … the response has been huge as most of the youth are innovating various products for addressing various challenges facing society,” Dr Nungu said.
He added that, the aim of the government was to create an enabling environment to promote efficiency in innovation by reviewing guidelines which were huddles to innovators to increase capital and deliberate on how to promote innovation in the country.
Dr Nungu insisted that it was the responsibility of development partners and the private sector to support young innovators to promote their work, connect to markets and provide financial support.
For his part, Human Development Innovation Fund (HDIF) Country Director Joseph Manirakiza said his organisation would continue collaborating with the government to ensure innovation funds benefitted many innovators in the country.
He said there was a need for coming up with policies governing innovation to increase efficiency and address emerging challenges.
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Resident Representative Christina Musisi said to attain Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) there was a need for the country to attain the middle-income economy through innovation.
She said innovation was crucial to finding out solutions to problems facing people. He thus called upon all sectors of the economy to collaborate to promote development.
