Dr Isaac Adaebsah, the Acting Chief Executive Officer of the GRATIS Foundation says the foundation is repositioning itself to contribute to the 24-economy implementation for enhanced job creation and poverty reduction.
He said plans were far advanced for the Foundation to take over and manage 31 Technology Solutions Centers (TSCs) of the Rural Enterprises Programme (REP), and to push a rigorous industrialization drive.
Dr Adaebsah said: “As we speak now, the REP programme has ended, and the programme will soon hand-over all the TSCs to the GRATIS.
With the TSCs the foundation will be well positioned and empowered enough to employ more youth and to achieve the mandate of turning the primary agriculture economy to secondary agriculture”, he stated.
The TSCs are technical workshops designed to support micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) with technology solutions, technical training, and the fabrication of agro-processing machinery.
Those centers aimed to promote technology transfer and enhance productivity, particularly in agriculture and agro-industry.
Dr Adaebsah was speaking in an interview with Ghana News Agency (GNA) at Jema in the Kintampo South District of the Bono East Region on the Foundation preparedness towards the 24-hour economy.
He said: “The foundation has even received more employment opportunity offers from the World Food Programme and others and in line with the 24-hour economy and with the TSCs the foundation will employ more youth”.
Dr Adaebsah indicated that robust industrialization held the key to the nation’s progressive development and economic prosperity, assuring that “the foundation will be well placed, align itself and enroll more of the youth into fabrication and to contribute to the 24-hour economy”.
GRATIS Foundation is a technology transfer, training and manufacturing agency under the Ministry of Trade and Industry.
Incorporated in 1999, it evolved from the Ghana Regional Appropriate Technology Industrial Service (GRATIS) project which was established in 1987 by the government with support from the European Union and the Canadian International Development Agency to promote small-scale industrialization in the country.