Much has been written about how Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) Technology Consulting Center (TCC) helped the small engineering workshops of Suame Magazine, Kumasi, Ghana’s largest informal industrial area. Over two decades, starting in 1972 and gradually spreading to other industrial areas in Accra, Tema, Sunyani and even Bolgatanga in the far north, the program helped establish more than 100 machine shops manufacturing agricultural, post-harvest and food tools and equipment. Processing industries and traditional craft industries. Using basic machine tools such as metal turning lathes and milling machines, a few hundred engineers provided the plant and equipment for thousands of workplaces in these secondary industries. However, this very significant expansion effect depended on the constant importation and supply of some essential engineering tools that the TCC can no longer maintain, and which now presents small industrialists with a great limitation.
A Suame Magazine study conducted in recent years by MIT’s Anna Waldman-Brown and KNUST’s George Yaw Obeng and Yaw Adu-Gyamfi, entitled: Innovation and Stagnation Among Ghana’s Technical Craftsmen, reports that since the mid-1990s Progress in the informal engineering sector has slowed to a halt. The absence of institutional support has meant that the supply of affordable technical inputs has ceased. As tools wore out, broke, or were lost, certain manufacturing operations were no longer possible. Not only did the introduction of new products become more difficult, but some well-established products could no longer be manufactured.
The tools were never provided for free. TCC and FREE have always recouped the cost of the artisan inputs, but did their best to keep the price down. Often used, but still usable tools were bought in the UK and resold at cost plus transport cost. Some tools that were donated by UK workshops that were closing down, were sold to the craftsmen paying only the cost of shipping to Ghana. Over time, competition from other developing countries increased the cost and scarcity of used equipment, and new items were purchased in greater quantities, but craftsmen could still afford the cost. It was understood that, in the long term, the industry must be supplied by commercial companies and it was thought that these would obtain their profits by buying at wholesale prices.
Importing is the business of traders, and since the IMF imposed its dictates on Ghana in the mid-1980s, most imported goods have originated in China. TCC and FREE tried to persuade traders to import essential inputs needed by the grassroots engineering industry, but the potential profits were never considered sufficient to justify the effort. Inputs are technical and must be specified exactly, and specialized items are needed in relatively small quantities. Traders lacked the patience and incentive to understand customer needs and communicate with sources of supply, even though TCC and FREE were able to provide most of the necessary business and technical information.
Chinese imports supply common items like hand hacksaw blades, but the larger, stronger blades needed for electric hacksaws are harder to find. Similarly, hand-threading taps and dies are available, but machine taps and dies are not needed on a winch. Without going into further technical details, it can be said that there is still a pressing need for special machine tools and precision measuring instruments. Once again it must be emphasized that these few essential inputs have a ripple effect that benefits thousands of disadvantaged people in all parts of the country. Anyone interested in helping, either on a charitable basis or by establishing a commercial supply, can obtain a recent list of needs by contacting the author via the website below.