By Kofi Ahovi
British Council, last week, held a policy dialogue conference on Africa Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (AKTP), to portray the achievement of a pilot study it embarked on about two years ago.
Graduates of tertiary institutions in Ghana including the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), University of Ghana Legon, among others were linked up with companies to find solutions to specific challenges of the respective companies thereby improving the balance sheets of the companies.
The pilot companies were Apaak Traditional Medicines, Nkulenu Industries and Cocoa Processing Company, all members of the Association of Ghana Industries.
In Nkulenu Industries, for instance, the graduate was tasked to help the company transform its orange roughage into jam, marmalaide, which was successfully done thereby improving Nkulenu’s profit from 35% to 60%. The orange roughage hitherto was waste which the company pays Zoomlion to manage.
The conference was aimed at highlighting the essential characteristics for successful partnerships between academics and business leaders that can generate employment opportunities for graduates and hence add value to the national economy.
Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP) is among the world’s leading initiatives helping businesses to improve their competitiveness and productivity through the better use of knowledge, technology and expertise that reside within the knowledge base in a country.
AKTP, based upon the success story of UK KTP is now being piloted by the British Council in Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria and South Africa.
The Minister of Environment, Science and Technology, Shirley Ayiteh, observed that government over the past years has adopted a wide range of economic, trade, investment, educational and industrial policies including the Science and Technology and Innovation Policy to reduce poverty, and to spur growth and development.
The policy adopts the system of knowledge transfer partnerships and emphasizes on entrepreneurial research that leads to transferable technologies to support the private sector.
Another approach being adopted by the Ministry of Environment Science and Technology in increasing the potential employment generation through knowledge transfer partnership is the promotion of the establishment of a science and technology Theme Parks in Ghana. Currently, there are plans to establish S&T Theme Parks in Cape Coast, KNUST and at the Institute of Industrial Research.
Theme parks provide a formidable potential for employment generation through knowledge transfer partnership.
The minister commended the British Council for accepting the concept of local content by using local graduate in this initiative.
The president of AGI, Nana Owusu Afari, lamented on the fact that several researches have been conducted in the past by various institutions in Ghana, but many have not been implemented, adding that “unfortunately, some of these research projects do not seem to be tailored towards the needs of industry.”
He was however hopeful that with collaborative projects such as the KTP, the country’s higher education institutions would be able to offer a plethora of scientific knowledge, technology and skills to meet industry demand.
The AGI president reminded government of the need to shift its policy towards encouraging innovation and creativity in the industrial field, stressing that adequate resource must be provided to revamp the industrial research institutions to meet the emerging challenges.
The conference was attended by development partners interested in wealth creation, sponsor groups concern with economic development, senior policy makers, private sector partners and graduates working in science areas with an interest in value addition.
British Council, last week, held a policy dialogue conference on Africa Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (AKTP), to portray the achievement of a pilot study it embarked on about two years ago.
Graduates of tertiary institutions in Ghana including the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), University of Ghana Legon, among others were linked up with companies to find solutions to specific challenges of the respective companies thereby improving the balance sheets of the companies.
The pilot companies were Apaak Traditional Medicines, Nkulenu Industries and Cocoa Processing Company, all members of the Association of Ghana Industries.
In Nkulenu Industries, for instance, the graduate was tasked to help the company transform its orange roughage into jam, marmalaide, which was successfully done thereby improving Nkulenu’s profit from 35% to 60%. The orange roughage hitherto was waste which the company pays Zoomlion to manage.
The conference was aimed at highlighting the essential characteristics for successful partnerships between academics and business leaders that can generate employment opportunities for graduates and hence add value to the national economy.
Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP) is among the world’s leading initiatives helping businesses to improve their competitiveness and productivity through the better use of knowledge, technology and expertise that reside within the knowledge base in a country.
AKTP, based upon the success story of UK KTP is now being piloted by the British Council in Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria and South Africa.
The Minister of Environment, Science and Technology, Shirley Ayiteh, observed that government over the past years has adopted a wide range of economic, trade, investment, educational and industrial policies including the Science and Technology and Innovation Policy to reduce poverty, and to spur growth and development.
The policy adopts the system of knowledge transfer partnerships and emphasizes on entrepreneurial research that leads to transferable technologies to support the private sector.
Another approach being adopted by the Ministry of Environment Science and Technology in increasing the potential employment generation through knowledge transfer partnership is the promotion of the establishment of a science and technology Theme Parks in Ghana. Currently, there are plans to establish S&T Theme Parks in Cape Coast, KNUST and at the Institute of Industrial Research.
Theme parks provide a formidable potential for employment generation through knowledge transfer partnership.
The minister commended the British Council for accepting the concept of local content by using local graduate in this initiative.
The president of AGI, Nana Owusu Afari, lamented on the fact that several researches have been conducted in the past by various institutions in Ghana, but many have not been implemented, adding that “unfortunately, some of these research projects do not seem to be tailored towards the needs of industry.”
He was however hopeful that with collaborative projects such as the KTP, the country’s higher education institutions would be able to offer a plethora of scientific knowledge, technology and skills to meet industry demand.
The AGI president reminded government of the need to shift its policy towards encouraging innovation and creativity in the industrial field, stressing that adequate resource must be provided to revamp the industrial research institutions to meet the emerging challenges.
The conference was attended by development partners interested in wealth creation, sponsor groups concern with economic development, senior policy makers, private sector partners and graduates working in science areas with an interest in value addition.
Comments