Engineering: issues, challenges and opportunities for development ...

ENGINEERING: ISSUES CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR DEVELOPMENTis where international sponsors to developing countries couldprovide funding to BOTEC to replicate its research results, suchas the need to replicate photovoltaic power stations. Sponsorshipcould also be advanced to undertake specific researchaimed at addressing varied development challenges.BOTEC is a stage of revising its strategic direction and thiswill be done in view of national research priorities, as well asthe Millennium Development Goals of the UN. The revisionof research strategy is always necessary for research institutesbecause of the ever-changing landscape of science and technology.Whatever the focus areas are, they will be designed toaddress the development issues of Botswana through science,engineering and technology research.7.4.3Technology ConsultancyCentre, GhanaPeggy Oti-BoatengThe emergence of a grassroots Industrial RevolutionThe Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology(KNUST) was established in 1954 to train science, technologyand engineering graduates in response to the push by the firstPresident of Ghana, Dr Kwame Nkruma, for industrial independence.A number of departments in science, agriculture,architecture, pharmacy, arts and engineering were establishedto develop the needed human resource capacity to harnessGhana’s natural resources for the infrastructure, socio-economicand industrial development of the country. Althoughthese departments trained first-class graduates, there was amissing link between industry, community and university.Research findings were seen as not responding to nationalaspirations. This prompted the establishment of the TechnologyConsultancy Centre (TCC) at the University to serve asa ‘one-stop–shop’ for responding to industry and entrepreneurs.The Technology Consultancy Centre (TCC) was established inJanuary 1972 on the recommendations of the Palmer-McRobieCommittee, which was accepted by the University Council in1971 to foster a closer link between the community, industryand the university. TCC was mandated to promote andtransfer of technologies developed by the university for thesolution of grave problems of science and technology in thecountry. Importantly, there was a provision for opportunitiesfor academic staff to undertake consultancy services.With assistance from the Intermediate Technology DevelopmentGroup (ITDG, now Practical Action) in the UK, theTCC was to serve as an interface between the research anddevelopment activities taking place at the university and theentrepreneurial aspiration of the Ghanaian public. As a semiautonomousunit within the University, it had the mandateto collate and disseminate appropriate research findings andtechnological developments towards agricultural and industrialgrassroots development in Ghana.When the TCC opened its doors in 1972, it was soon realizedthat addressing the challenges of development in the informalsector and small-scale industries was more urgent thanin promoting consultancy services to more affluent levels ofthe public and the private sector. It also become apparent thatthe university was more likely to make a sustainable impacton Ghana’s industrial development though the promotion ofa grassroots engineering manufacturing base, which wouldultimately foster the growth of all the other productive sectorsof the economy. Finally, it is only through active grassrootsinvolvement that the real context can be understood and thereal problems identified; it was soon realized, therefore, thatconsultancy services that were not based on such grassrootsexperience are of very limited value.Incubation centres were developed for clients to grow theirbusinesses, and clients were supplied with machines andmachine tools on hire-purchase to improve productivity.Through these means, the TCC has, over the years, acquired awealth of knowledge and experience needed to promote thesmall-scale industries programme, which later constituted 80per cent of its work.TCC devoted much of its efforts at the time to appropriatetechnologies and small-scale industrial development, and itassisted in establishing and coordinating the management ofa number of production units in the various university faculties.This was, however, not done at the expense of fee-payingconsultancy services, which earned good sums of money forsenior members and their departments at the time.Over the past thirty-six years, the Technology ConsultancyCentre has successfully served as a catalyst for networkingbetween its research units, entrepreneurs and the community.The TCC has also researched, developed and transferreda number of appropriate technologies aimed at enterprisedevelopment, wealth creation and poverty reduction.One of its most successful stories is the development of theIntermediate Technology Transfer Unit (ITTU). The ITTUconcept, which seeks to put the technical expertise availableat the university on the doors steps of practitioners inthe informal industrial area through a series of interventions,marked an important milestone for the Technology ConsultancyCentre in 1978. The success of the first two ITTUs inKumasi and Tamale led the Government of Ghana to embarkon the Ghana Regional Appropriate Technology IndustrialService (GRATIS) project, with a mandate to establish ITTUsin the remaining eight regional capitals of Ghana by 1990356