From (R-L) Kwamena Essielfie Quaison with participants
Participants from various research institutes in the country have participated in a workshop to enable them acquire knowledge on matchmaking to co-create businesses using innovative technologies.
The five-day-workshop, was organised by the Ministry for Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation (MESTI), in partnership with the Commission for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (CTVET) under the ‘Ghana Jobs and Skills Project’.
It afforded participants the opportunity to identify technologies that could help them scale-up existing businesses ventures.
Speaking at the opening ceremony at Koforidua in the Eastern region, Director in charge of Science Technology and Innovation (ST&I) at the Ministry, Kwamena Essielfie Quaison said technology transfer and commercialisation of research has been a major policy concern for the government.
He said successive Ministers of the Ministry have therefore placed technology transfer at the top of their agenda not necessarily because it is the most rational agenda for them to pursue but due to the interest of many other ministries and agencies.
He said such interest through the workshop would afford the Ministry to find innovative solutions to the weak research industry collaboration and ensure that research outputs from institutions were made available to entrepreneurs to create the needed jobs to support economic growth.
Mr. Quaison said the country wants to emulate the example of other developed countries where research institutes have played significant roles in their development initiatives.
“It is worth mentioning that two of the proud collaboration researchers I have always alluded to are those of the Kasapreko collaboration with the Centre for Plant Medicine and Despite company’s collaboration with the Food Research Institute of the CSIR”.
He said he was hopeful that more giant local companies who have created lots of jobs and supported economic growth of the Ghanaian economy like the Despites’ would emerge from the match making workshop.
He added that the workshop was the beginning of a road map to an “Innovation Voucher Programme” where government would provide Innovation Vouchers to Entrepreneurs to access technologies at Universities and Research Institutions.
Mr. Quaison further stated that the matchmaking would also be followed by disbursements of grants to any SME or Start-up that identifies any technology or extension services of an amount equivalent to $5000.00 or more depending on the market viability analysis of the project.
By Ebenezer K. Amoponsah