Rebrand GRATIS Foundation …Kyerematen tells reconstituted board
The Minister of Trade and Industry, Alan Kyerematen, has charged the newly reconstituted Board of the GRATIS Foundation to reposition the institution to meet the needs of the government’s industrialisation agenda.
He said the Foundation was critical in providing appropriate technology-based products and services for micro, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to facilitate socio-economic and industrial development in the country.
The minister was speaking yesterday in Accra during the inauguration of the new Board of the Foundation.
Chaired by Dr Richard Amoako Baah, the seven-member Board include Ntim Kofi Adjei, Chief Executive of the GRATIS Foundation, and Emmanuel Effah Preko.
The rest are Collins Owusu Amankwaah, Diana Frimpong Manso, Abena Nyarko Antwi and Emmanuel Agyei Anhwere.
In order to make the Foundation more relevant in promoting industrialisation, Mr Kyerematen asked the board to rebrand it by operating on sound commercial lines to ensure sustainability.
He tasked the board to restructure the institution through the development of new organisational structures to help it become more service-oriented.
Additionally, the minister asked the board to reposition GRATIS to raise capital out of their services, even though their name suggested otherwise.
Dr Baah pledged that the board would work to develop the institution and make it more responsive to the needs of SMEs.
Already, he said, the Foundation had started work on rebranding and reiterated the need for more resources to enable it to undertake plans and strategies.
Dr Baah urged the ministry to continue to provide the needed support as the Foundation had been commissioned with an uphill task.
GRATIS Foundation is a technology transfer, training and manufacturing organisation operating in the country.
Incorporated in 1999, it evolved from the Ghana Regional Appropriate Technology Industrial Service (GRATIS) project, established in 1987 by the government with support from the European Union and the Canadian International Development Agency, to promote small-scale industrialisation in the country.
BY CLAUDE NYARKO ADAMS