African Engineers: Frank Awuah

Frank Awuah expended a variety of decades in the United Kingdom functioning for important engineering providers like British Rail and London Transportation, where he obtained much ability and encounter in what he termed motor repair service machining. On returning to Ghana in the late 1970s he determined to established up his personal modest business in Suame Journal, Kumasi, but he struggled to get began mainly because even though he experienced enough money the machine applications that he required ended up not available locally. His fortunes transformed, however, when he contacted the Technological know-how Consultancy Centre (TCC) of the Kwame Nkrumah College of Science and Technological innovation (KNUST).

In 1979 the TCC been given funding from the Intermediate Technological know-how Enhancement Team (ITDG) of London to import great applied device applications to help the institution of four modest engineering enterprises. Two of these enterprises have been leased workshop accommodation at the Suame Intermediate Technology Transfer Unit (ITTU) when operations began in August 1980. Frank Awuah observed this improvement and came to the TCC to see if he could be helped in a related way. He way too was furnished with workshop room at the Suame ITTU wherever he commenced doing the job with a compact cylinder re-unexciting device, but he was compelled to wait around until eventually the up coming grant of international trade became obtainable to the TCC to finance the importation of the other important machine equipment.

Frank Awuah termed his firm Crafton Engineering Solutions Ltd. He experienced a prepare to set up the maintenance of Volkswagon Beetle air-cooled engines, and for this he essential a big centre lathe. His persistence was rewarded when the TCC allocated to him the premier lathe in its importation programme: a Colchester Mascot with a extensive length bed. He was also offered with a universal milling machine and ancillary devices. Frank Awuah was then in a place to introduce some motor fix solutions that had not earlier been available in Suame Journal. These integrated not only the planned replacement of Volkswagon crankcase main bearing seatings but also the replacement of burned-out exhaust valve seatings and the manufacture of piston rings.

In the early 1980s, Ghana was quite small of overseas exchange and even worldwide firms functioning in the place discovered it hard to import the materials and spare sections they wanted to go on in company. The French corporation, L’Air Liquide, operated liquid gasoline and acetylene vegetation in Kumasi and Tema but its output was threatened when its gasoline compressors necessary alternative piston rings. By supplying the sections domestically, Frank Awuah was capable to assistance retain necessary compressed gasoline provides through this crucial period of time. Like Stephen Okunor with his gearwheels, Frank Awuah, through the high quality of his work, was in a position to pioneer a website link between grassroots engineering and worldwide organizations.

When in 1987 Dr Francis Acquah, Secretary of Point out for Business, Science and Engineering, established the Free of charge Undertaking to established up ITTUs in all of Ghana’s 10 regions, he was anxious that the Board of Administrators must contain some reps of the casual sector. Frank Awuah was picked to stand for the artisans of Suame Magazine and Ashanti Area. His sensible counsel aided to hold the venture targeted on the desires of the grassroots purchasers served by the ITTUs in each location. He remaining the Gratis Board only when its perform was modified with the generation of the long-lasting Gratis Basis in the late 1990s.

In his workshop at the Suame ITTU, Frank Awuah was a neighbour of Stephen Okunor. The extent to which each and every expert technician impressed the other might never be regarded. Nonetheless, what is selected is that these two exemplars performed a key job in growing the auto maintenance providers of Suame Magazine at a time when these types of self-reliance was desperately needed.

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