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Ghana has launched a year-long celebration of the International Year of Light and Light-based Technologies 2015 (IYL).

The country will lead Africa to celebrate the IYL 2015 with a sub-Regional Conference and Exhibition from 26th – 28th May, 2015 at the Accra International Conference Centre, under the theme “Harnessing Light and Light-based Technologies for Africa’s Development”.

The officially launched was held in Accra on Tuesday, 17th of March to begin a series of events to highlight the significance and contribution of light and light-based technologies to the development and improvement in the quality of life.

Launching the IYL, 2015 on behalf of the President of the Republic of Ghana, John Dramani Mahama, the Hon. Minister for Education who is also the Chairman of the Ghana National Commission for UNESCO, Professor Naana Jane Opoku-Agyemang, called for an increased attention for science and technology in the education sector, adding that, the nation’s development depends largely on the savvy of the science fields.

The President called on the private sector in Ghana and development partners to participate in actualizing the four outcomes of the commemoration of the IYL, 2015 in Ghana for the benefit of industry and the sub-region as a whole.

The outcomes are to create an Institute for Laser and Fibre Optics at the University of Cape Coast; the establishment of a Laser Medical Application Laboratory; establishment of a Solar Technology Research Centre and; the establishment of a Museum of Light and Light-based Technologies.

Prof. Paul Kingsley Buah-Bassuah, a Professor of Laser and Optical Physics of the University of Cape Coast and a member of the planning committee of the IYL in Ghana, expounded on the usefulness of light and light-based technologies, citing the range of its value from MRI machines through X’rays to microwave ovens.