Rejoice Makoni
Herald Correspondent
Harare Institute of Technology (HIT)Vice Chancellor Dr Engineer Quinton Kanhukamwe has commended Government for making policies that highlight the importance of natural products as the country gears to attain an upper middle-income society by 2030.
In a speech read on his behalf at the ongoing 20th Natural Products Research Network for East and Central Africa (NAPRECA) international symposium by HIT Pro-Vice Chancellor Dr. Eng. Talon Garikayi, Dr Kanhukamwe said the symposium created an opportunity for networking.
The conference will end tomorrow and is being attended by representatives from Botswana, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Egypt, Kenya, Madagascar, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda.
Dr Kanhukamwe said the meeting also provided an opportunity to market goods and services and sharing information on different natural products.
“The importance of natural products is highlighted in various policy documents of the Government of Zimbabwe, which specifically designates as natural product-related, challenges to be addressed to achieve an upper middle-income society by 2030,” he said.
“Conferences and symposia are activities that connect with all five of the key missions. As such, the University takes pride in promoting and supporting such initiatives so as to encourage cross-pollination of ideas between different universities across the continent. It is an honour and a privilege for the Harare Institute of Technology to serve as the host for the 20th NAPRECA symposium.
“It is well known that Africa has a rich biodiversity of flora and fauna. The continent also harbours a cultural melting pot of practices and traditions that use medicinal plants.
“As such, this research network that brings together scientists from all across Africa may yield the next generation of drugs, agrichemicals, food additives as well as a diverse array of industrially relevant chemicals of biological origin.
“HIT robustly pursues the technopreneur philosophy which inculcates the belief and resilience in our students to venture into hi-tech business enterprises to deliver innovative, value-added products to the local and international marketplace through the creation of scalable business ventures.”
Former president of NAPRECA Zimbabwe Prof Stanley Mukanganyama said the country needed to develop the science sector in order to complement the Education 5.0 thrust.
“Natural products have been used for a long time in Zimbabwe, but people tend not to have faith in them because they want some validation in terms of science,” he said.
“People are very quick to grab products from other countries because they have been put in tube or presented as pills. We need to develop our products in Zimbabwe based on the knowledge that our grandparents used them before.
“We need to check that no toxicities involved in the products and it is the role of our scientists. There is need for research to establish that the herbs and medicinal products work-based on historical uses of various plants.
“As scientists we need to bring the village science into the market so that we can validate those traditional products. If you give someone leaves, they do not feel confident about them but if we develop them into a tube sold from the pharmacy people can quickly grab.”
The three-day conference is running under the theme “Advances and challenges in sustainable utilisation of natural products.”
It is the first time for the symposium to be held in Southern Africa in its 40 years history.