Assisting inventors; GSA must expand support

The industriousness of the Ghanaian has been tested during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many Ghanaians have come up with innovations following the call by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo for Ghanaians to rise to the occasion.

President Akufo-Addo on Monday, March 16, 2020, met with captains of industry to deliberate on how to locally produce materials, including sanitisers and medicines, as part of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) response in Ghana, which they have since discharged with distinction.

After the meeting, President Akufo-Addo posted on his Facebook page that the meeting, among other issues, discussed at length how best Ghana could begin to reduce her dependency on imports in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Ghanaian has always been known to be industrious and has in times past come up with many innovations that have benefited the entire world. Unfortunately, along the line, the appetite for foreign goods as against locally produced ones have soared, partly because local producers have not received the needed help to make their products equally match up with those produced in Europe, America, Asia and other places.

After more than 30 years of inventing the widely known Veronica Bucket, Mrs Veronica Bekoe says she was unable to patent the bucket due to bureaucracy. This ought not to be so.

Imagine how the country could have benefited from this innovation if it had been patented and certified then.

It is in view of the frustrations the Ghanaian inventor has had to face in a bid to register, patent or have a product certified that the Daily Graphic lauds the Ghana Standards Authority (GSA) for assisting a graduate from the Christian Service University College in Kumasi, Mr Richard Kwarteng, to certify his solar-powered handwashing device which does not require people to physically touch the tap.

The Daily Graphic, however, urges the GSA, especially, but also other institutions such as the Food and Drugs Authority, to be more proactive in their assistance to indigenous inventions not only to boost the Ghanaian economy, but also encourage more innovations from Ghanaians who have got what it takes to rub shoulders with the world.

We should not wait for dire situations such as we are experiencing with COVID-19 before offering assistance and direction to locals who come up with brilliant ideas to help humanity.

Already, there have been other inventions such as the manufacture of an industrial-size foot-operated handwashing machine by the Kumasi Technical University (KsTU) which is targeted at eliminating the possibility of one contracting COVID-19 or in effect, all manner of viruses.

According to the engineer, Dr Joseph Ribeiro of the Mechanical Engineering Department of the KsTU, who led an eight-member departmental team to produce the industrial-size machine, it took the team one week to come out with the machine, while it cost the university GH¢2,000 to manufacture.

Meanwhile, according to the GSA, it costs about GH¢20,000 to test and certify a product. While we believe that the GSA may not be able to absolve all costs with respect to innovations as it did for Mr Kwarteng, we still believe that the high cost can be reviewed so many more products by Ghanaians could be tested and certified.

The Vice Chancellor of KsTU, Professor Osei Wusu Achiaw, says the department has the capacity to produce 10 of the machines in a day and that plans are afoot to manufacture smaller sizes fit for homes and offices.

The Daily Graphic urges the GSA and other allied bodies to deliberately look out for innovators, especially in our schools, to assist, maybe through grants to let the Ghanaian innovative spirit rise again.