Technology key to development - Dr. Bawumia

The Kristo Asafo Mission on Sunday, December 29, 2019 held its annual technological and agricultural exhibition at the Apostle Kwadwo Safo’s School of Arts and Sciences at Awoshie in Accra.

The exhibition of food produce, demonstration of two vehicles and a durbar which marked the 39th edition since the inception of the annual exhibition by the founder and leader of the Kristo Asafo church, Apostle Dr Kwadwo Safo, witnessed the unveiling of a newly manufactured special armoured personnel carrier vehicle and a 40-footer luxury vehicle molded in the shape of a wingless plane.

The durbar attracted people from all walks of life among who were the Chief of Defence Staff, Lieutenant General Obed Akwa, the Vice-President of the National House of Chiefs Daasebre Kwebu Ewusi VII and the Akwamuhene, Odeneho Kwafo Akoto III, who was special guest.

It was on the theme: “Enhancing sustainable technology, organic agriculture and culture; The pathway to development.”

Technology
The Vice-President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia who outdoored the new vehicles said technology was key to development and therefore the African and for that matter the black man could lead the technological development in Africa and in the world.

He said such a vision by Apostle Dr Safo was in line with the vision shared by the government to prepare the minds of the country’s youth for the world of work through the government’s Ghana Beyond Aid agenda which he said could not be achieved without technology.

To that end, Vice-President Bawumia said to focus on technology meant government must focus on the areas of education that also enhance technology.

He said the government has paid a lot of attention to education culminating in the introduction of the free SHS policy which he indicated would serve as a building block for technological education in the country.

Therefore, he said, the policy had gone beyond the free SHS policy and resolved to make Ghana’s technical and vocational education a major component of the country’s education curriculum.

TVET initiatives
The Vice-President therefore catalogued a number of initiatives embarked upon by the government with regard to improving technical and vocational education, saying “the TVET will be free just like the SHS.”

The government, he said, would also re-engineer the country’s technical and vocational education to be abreast with modern trends.

On the number of initiatives, Dr Bawumia said the first component of the project comprised the refurbishing of infrastructure and construction of new infrastructure of the existing 34 National Vocational Training Centres.

“Secondly, we are refurbishing the existing infrastructure and constructing new head offices and ten regional offices and apprenticeship offices. Procurement of 26 Information Communications Technology (ICT) equipment for the 34 NVTI centres as well as competency- based training to cover 700 trainers across 34 NVTI”, he added.

Again, the Vice-President said buses and four wheel drive vehicles were also being provided including a workshop for the Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in Accra and another at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology.

All these according to Vice-President Bawumia, are part of the steps to replicate the efforts to Ghana’s industrial transformation in due course.

However, he said, government alone could not lead the way to bringing a new dimension to the country’s educational structure and industrial transformation and so it behoved on individuals and corporations to contribute to the well-being of society by identifying problems and offering the solutions.

“This I believe is what Apostle Dr Safo has done by offering practical oriented teaching, learning as well as spearheading research and scientific technology that will put Ghana and Africa on the path of development”, the Vice-President stressed.

He lauded the vision of Apostle Dr Safo and said his effort was one that demanded commendation and continued support from all including government, and hoped that the school would become a leading institution of practical learning offering impeccable education and hands-on professional training.

“We cannot just speak about it without doing much about it. We all know that God has given apostle a lot of wisdom and ingenuity which he is using for the benefit of mother Ghana. We have therefore made it a policy to buy a specified number of vehicles from local assembling automobile companies such as Kantanka which a number had already been bought by government”, he stated and urged the school to design soft or digital infrastructure that would enhance the operations of farmers as well as agric business.

Apostle Safo
Explaining the motive for the manufacturing of his latest fleet, which he said was to reinforce the technological acumen and the ingenuity of the Ghanaian, Apostle Dr Kwadwo Safo who spoke in his native Twi dialect expressed disappointment that Ghana was unable to match the speed with which countries like Korea and China were advancing in terms of technology.

He said we are changing the curriculum of the country’s education to be the power and star of the continent, and called on Ghanaians to appreciate and value locally produced products.

The Vice-Chancellor of the Accra Technical University, Prof Samuel Nii Odai, who chaired the function said it was time the country’s education system caught up with modern trends since the traditional methods of learning was gradually losing its grip.

He also called for support and encouragement from the government to aid the work of the apostle.