PROFOH Welcomes African Scholarship AND Innovation Fund Launch

The recent alarm raised by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) on the upsurge of cancer in Africa is worrisome to PROFOH. The alert served as a wake-up call on our organization. Not surprisingly, the IARC alarm came just as the world marked the World Cancer Day with the theme, “Debunk the MytThe launch event was led by the President of the Republic of Senegal HE Macky Sall, and representatives of the Heads of States of Ethiopia and Rwanda.  The Fund will contribute to the ‘Partnership for Skills in Applied Sciences, Engineering and Technology (PASET)’ programme, which seeks to award 10,000 African PhD scholarships over ten years, to strengthen research and innovation in applied science, engineering and technology.

The African Governments involved committed to the Fund alongside a new group of prominent business figures, the ‘Africa Business Champions for Science’, to raise a total of $5million during the launch. The ‘Africa Business Champions for Science’ group is chaired by the Angolan businessman Dr Álvaro Sobrinho, also Chairman of the Planet Earth Institute NGO. Additional funds will now be mobilized from African Governments, business leaders and other developmental partners, to operationalize the Fund by June 2016.

The World Bank reaffirmed its support to the PASET objectives and its readiness to continue to support the initiative. According to the World Bank, after a decade of exceptional growth in Africa, averaging 4.5 percent a year across the continent, it is necessary to build skills to sustain this growth and transform African economies towards higher levels of competitiveness. Currently the African workforce greatly suffers from a lack of scientific and technical capacity and an integrated approach that brings together all partners  – public and private, traditional and emerging partners – is needed.

The Regional Scholarship and Innovation Fund adopt this approach, with African Governments committing hand in hand with the private sector and other partners.
That occasion provided an opportunity for all to raise a collective voice towards improving general knowledge about cancer and dismissing all misconceptions about the disease. There are four myths about cancer including: there is no need to talk about cancer; there are no signs or symptoms; there is nothing a victim  can do about cancer and he or she does not have the right to cancer care.

These over arching myths have helped to compound the cancer burden, especially, among thousands of poor sufferers in Nigeria in particular and Africa as a whole. The time is, therefore, ripe for critical stake holders to rally round and confront the scourge.

There is no doubt that cancer has become a major public health issue in Africa. The disease is now rampant to the extent that at least practically every African knows someone who died of cancer. The situation is such that except something is done to curb the epidemic, more and more Nigerians would fall victim thereby aggravating the poverty scourge.